The Essence Of His Soul
by My Echoing Silence
Summary: Harry Potter was actually supposed to die that day, you know. Unfortunately, for the overworked Ferry Girl who was supposed to pick him up, a wandering Youkai soul pitched in and gave him a hand, or, rather, a soul. What was his name? Kuronue? Meh.Whateva
1. Chapter 1

**_Disclaimer:_** I do not own anything recognised as belonging to other people.

Just a little idea I'm kicking around. If I get enough reviews, I'll continue.

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Where was it?

_What _was it?

He knew it was there; he had felt it fluttering beneath the surface of his consciousness like a bird in a net only moments ago, but it had disappeared as quickly as it had come.

Harry Potter frowned, tiny neon-violet will-'o-the-wisps dancing in the cat-shaped green eyes that stared at the ceiling, unseeing, as he looked into himself.

He knew it was there somewhere. He knew it had always been there; lurking below his waking self, inside his darkest dreams. But he had only in the last year actually realized its existence when Snape had been mind-raping him. It had been an instinctive fear of the man find the… the _essence _that lurked in his mind that had given him the power to throw the vile man out and keep it that way.

Since he had become aware of this Essence, it had been brushing against his consciousness like velvet inside his skull or a cat against a cupped hand, sometimes at the most inopportune times. Sometimes it was so forceful that it made him cringe like someone had rubbed his fur the wrong way.

Sometimes when it brushed him, he would be struck by a sudden impulse to cause mischief, while other times it would cause him to snap at or become irritated with his three closest friends, Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger and his twin brother, Gary, The-Boy-Who-Lived. They had passed it off as stress over OWLs and his general teenage angst.

As the school year had begun to end, Harry had noticed that the Essence had almost a personality of its own and reacted differently to the people around him. It plainly loathed Hermione and Ron, disliked and disrespected Gary, gave him bloodthirsty impulses around Snape, regarded Umbridge with the same distain usually reserved for unsavoury things on the bottom of one's shoe, curled its lip in distaste at Dumbldore, cackled in glee with the twins, gave the impression of wanting to stomp on Draco Malfoy's tail (The Hell!?!), tolerated Neville Longbottom with amused condescension, gave wary affection to Remus Lupin, had liked Harry's Godfather, Sirius Black, well enough, gave the impression he wasn't all that impressed with his parents, Lily and James Potter, went feral (not in a good was) when Ginny Weasley was around and, oddly enough, went positively gah-gah over Luna Lovegood.

There were many other people it greatly wanted to share its opinion of, but it would have taken Harry too long to memorise, so he mostly ignored the feelings sent over until in receded, giving the young wizard the impression of a sulking, pouting child.

But…then Sirius died...

Voldemort had taken possession of Harry's body, not Gary's as everyone had thought, while he was mentally and emotionally falling apart at the loss of one of the few adults who listened to him…

…Then the Essence rose swift and dangerous as a hawk, tearing at the Dark Lord's mind from beneath while Harry had struggled for all he was worth up front. Dumbledore thought that Harry (or Gary, as he had thought it was) struggled free on his own, but Harry was scared, so he kept the presence of the other to himself. He even asked Gary to take the credit. Gary, used to being in the lime-light, readily agreed.

…And besides, the Presence was the only one who immediately began to ask Harry if he was alright. And most of the anger that occurred in Dumbledore's office when he had portkeyed the twins there had come from the Presence.

The anger had come so quickly and violently that Harry had been unable to control it. It had been so wild and powerful and so incredibly wonderful that he had, after calming down, wondered if that was what sex felt like. The Essence had done something like chuckling and had assured him in its, no, _his_ wordless manner that sex was much better. And, Harry had blushed bright red at this, angry sex was a mind-blowing much better.

After Harry had been sent back to the Gryffindor tower, the Boy-Who-Lived had chattered incessantly about how famous he would be now while Harry had been trying to ignore the pain coming from the link with Voldemort, put a silencing charm around his bed and collapsed sobbing, the Essence coating the back of his mind like a soft, warm comforting blanket, fussing like a worried mother and making anxious 'sounds'.

Most of the end of year proceedings passed in a blur and then he was at the train station. He was vaguely aware of meeting his parents because his mental companion growled and he distantly heard the members of the Order around him exchanging information and passing on a message from Dumbledore.

During the long ride back to Godric's Hollow, the Essence made to comfort him a few times, but aside from that, he appeared to be distracted.

This had gone on for two days and Harry had finally come far enough out of his grieving depression to finally notice that his other half wasn't paying as much attention to him as he usually did. Indeed, it was usually like having an over attentive girlfriend with the other around.

The first time that had crossed his mind, the other had sulked and bitched something fierce for hours. He had been somewhat pacified when Harry had figured out how to do the _**Mental Motion Type 01; A**: Sidle Up And Give Puppy Eyes_. The Presence had felt embarrassed but pleased.

So here he was, lying on his voluptuous double bed, fumbling through his own mind looking for the other personality which, as far as basic psychology knew, was not supposed to be there. After a while, the green eyes blinked and the will-'o-the-wisps disappeared.

Harry sighed. How he was unable to find another presence in his own mind was beyond him.

A glance out the window said that it was noon-ish. He had started just as dawn was breaking, meaning that he had been in his own mind for roughly six hours.

Unable to bring himself to care, he sat up, now shoulder-blade length hair swinging around his face. It was like his hair had suddenly decided that nearly a decade of never changing style and length was wrong and put all those years of hair growth into two days. Yesterday morning, late last night and early this morning, Harry had snuck out and cut two and a half feet off to get it just above his ears again.

He suspected his tenant had something to do with it.

Shrugging it off and feeling lethargic in his patch of midday un, Harry dragged himself to his feet and staggered over to where his trunk was dumped in the corner. Might as well browse his text books and maybe do his homework.

…Oh right, he didn't have homework because he was choosing his classes this year.

He grabbed a random book from the middle of his books pile, only to find it was his Monster Book Of Monsters. Figuring '_What the hell'_, Harry stroked the spine and the small grunting sounds the book was making stopped.

He opened it to about the middle and began to idly flip through the pages, pausing when an odd bat with human characteristics hissed at him. There were several smaller pictures aside from the full-page bat-man. There was an exotic, red-headed woman with fox ears and a tail lounging along the bottom provocatively; a red skinned and horned ogre-ish creature was cheerfully grinning, baring a set of crooked teeth; a white and blue man with a cold, calculating look on his beautiful countenance and what appeared to be snow swirled around him made up the first letter of the page. Various other vaguely human creatures surrounded the paragraphs but those four creatures stirred an almost-memory; almost recognition. Déjà vu.

Roving green eyes studied the pictures for a minute or so before moving onto the actual words.

Across the top of the page was the word _'Youkai'_. The feeling of almost-memory surged back stronger, sending a shudder down Harry's spine.

There was a moment of vertigo when the Presence suddenly slammed into Harry's conscious mind like a fangirl glomping her crush, oozing excitement and eagerness that would have scared the adolescent wizard if he had retained any emotion except half-arsed interest in the book.

The Presence was 'bouncing' and demanding that Harry read it.

Harry sent back a '_And where the hell have you been?'_

The question was waved off with a '_Later_'.

Not in the mood to argue, Harry let his eyes wander to the top of the page and began reading.

_The term 'Youkai' is a Japanese word meaning 'Demon'. However, this term is not entirely accurate as it can also mean 'monster' or 'spirit'. Youkai are believed to be manifestations of animals, elements and aspects of nature, though some, like the Toushin or Mizoku, are also manifestations of war or destruction (respectively)._

_Youkai can be either evil or benign, as intelligent as a human or stupid as a rock, but it is generally agreed that the power used by these creatures is potent and makes them immune to most forms of magic._

_These creatures come in a variety of shapes and sizes, though it is believed that the closer the youkai resembles a human when all glamours are dropped, the stronger the race of youkai. However, THIS IS NOT A RULE. Some lesser youkai have the innate potential to become powerful, just as some muggleborns do._

Harry rolled his eyes. '_Oh yeah, the author is** so** not a pureblood.'_ He thought with some sarcasm.

The Essence snarled in agreement.

_The power used by youkai is a form of 'spirit energy' called 'youki', which is suspected of being a derivative of 'reiki', human 'spirit energy'. If properly harnessed, this 'spirit energy' is nearly unstoppable by magical means. Thankfully, in 1682, a group of extraordinary witches and wizards banded together and banished all youkai to another realm._

_However, there are places of power, such as plate faults and ley lines, where it is possible for portals to this place to open. If any witch or wizard should ever be so unfortunate as to meet a youkai and survive, they are expected to report the occurrence to their Ministry of Magic immediately._

Harry stared in contemplative silence for a bit, his mental roommate surprisingly still for a once. He blinked once, lizard-like, before inquiring of his tenant;

'_You're a youkai, aren't you?'_

There was a tentative and almost embarrassed affirmative. Harry waited for his own anger, fear and disgust to rise, but when nothing came he shrugged with a muttered "Whatever."

The Essence did the _**Mental Motion Type 02; C: **Slow Blink As The Mind Comes To Terms._ He finally came up with a confused '_Huh?'_

Harry smiled slightly, the only real emotion he had expressed for weeks other than depression. _'I said "Whatever". You've been in my head since time out of mind. It's not like I can actually kick you out and you've never done anything, to my knowledge, to hurt me.'_

The Essence appeared happy with that answer and wandered back to wherever it was that he went to, to do whatever it was he did.

There was a knock on the bedroom door. "Harry, sweetheart? Lunch is ready."

Harry heaved a sigh and sat up. "Coming, Mum." Replacing the now squirming book back into his trunk and wandered downstairs.

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Much obliged if you'd review. The continuation of this story does actually depend on it. Cheers. 


	2. Chapter 2

**_Disclaimer:_** I do not own anything recognised as belonging to other people.

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James and Gary were already digging into their homemade burgers while Harry's chicken salad was sitting, untouched, in his place closest to the window. As he settled into his place and reached for the jug of orange juice on the table, Lily walked into the room with her own salad, which she placed on the table and looked up to ask Harry something.

Her mouth remained open, but she appeared to be staring in blatant shock at the long black hair that now reached mid-back in half-waves.

"Harry?"

Harry glanced up at the shocked and squeaky inquiry from his mother. His father and brother had both glanced up to see what had Lily so surprised and were also gaping unattractively.

He sighed. Sometimes he wondered how he could have been born into this family.

"I don't know, but I've had to cut my hair three times since I got back from school. Ignore it. It's probably just ten years of not changing catching up."

Harry continued to eat his salad and, after a while, the rest of the family continued as well.

It was while Harry was assisting with the dishes that Lily started asking questions.

"So how has school been?"

"Peachy." The sarcastic bitterness in Harry's voice was almost tangible. "Umbridge was being an Umbitch all year, Snape found out some of my deepest secrets and fears because you and dad wanted us to learn Occumancy, we were led into a trap in the Department of Mysteries, Sirius died and I- Gary got mind-raped by Voldemort. Really, I don't think I've ever had a better year at Hogwarts."

"Oh…" Was his mother's rather lame reply, obviously wishing she hadn't said anything.

The rest of the time it took to cleaning the dishes manually was filled with a tense silence.

Just as Harry finished and was going out the kitchen to go back to his room, Lily spoke again.

"I'm going to Diagon Alley tomorrow morning and will probably stay for most of the day. Do you want to come?"

Harry's first instinct was to say no, but suddenly the Presence was there and an unnaturally cheerful voice came from his mouth.

"Yes, please!"

He gave the Other the _**Mental Motion Type 03; D:** Death Glare; Standard_. He continued up to his room with his mother's startled "Okay?" following him.

Once he was safe in his room, Harry settled onto his bed and demanded immediately "_What the fuck was that about?! I hate shopping!"_

The Other cackled and Harry was again overwhelmed with a sense of vertigo before everything blurred black.

(**space)**

If there was anything Harry knew about mist, it was that it was evaporated water, was most prominent during the early morning and that he _loathed_ it with a deep fiery passion. This had something to do with 1) Dementors; 2) graveyards on the edge of little Hangleton; and 3) the Forbidden Forest.

So when he was suddenly standing on grass surrounded by incredibly thick mist, he began to get agitated.

"The fuck?!"

He backed up rapidly and bumped into a leather-clad chest. Long ivory arms wrapped around Harry's shoulders, holding him in place. "Whoa there, kid. It's okay."

Sensing something familiar and comforting in the husky baritone voice, Harry twisted and tilted his head up.

The man holding him was tall, slender and graceful as a dancer. His skin was ivory and his face was highly sculptured and roguishly attractive, even beautiful. The deep indigo eyes that gleamed out of the long-lashed tilted eyes were sly and joyous and his wide laughing mouth was twisted into a cheerfully mischievous smirk. Long ink-black hair fell from a high ponytail out of sight, a black visor-headband shading his face.

Then Harry focused on those little oddities that marked him as other than human. For one, his ears were pointy and four inches long, and for two, there were big black bat-like wings sticking out of his back. And Harry was pretty sure human nails didn't get so sharp and claw-like when so short.

Taking all this into consideration, Harry turned back around and observed their surroundings with renewed curiosity.

"So is this my mind or something you came up with?"

The man behind him laughed, startled. "You always were able to deduce correctly faster than anyone ever realised."

"Hn." Harry acknowledged. "So are you gonna let me go and tell me what it is you've been planning, or are you going to continue hugging me until someone comes looking for me in my room?"

The youkai chuckled to himself, hugged Harry a little tighter for a moment before letting go and stepping back. Harry turned around to fully see the man.

The two regarded one another, Harry from 5'2ft and him from 6'9ft. Then the other grinned.

"You know, you're shorter than I always perceived you as."

Harry shrugged, not all that worried about such things at the moment. "I'm not really expecting to get past 5'6ft. I don't suppose you have a name."

The other smirked arrogantly, posing in what he probably thought was an awe-inspiring stance. "Kuronue, the Black Crane of the Makai. Demon Thief extraordinaire."

Harry folded his arms and smiled slightly, relaxing into a stance Gary often accused of looking girly. "How did you get here?"

The smile was wiped off Kuronue's face, leaving it sombre and unhappy. "I died. To save myself, I left the body, managed to find a portal into this world and I sought out a pregnant woman so I could possess the unborn child."

"And that was me, I guess."

Kuronue flashed the boy a quick, reassuring grin. "Not quite, kid. I wasn't able to find one in the right stage of pregnancy and was beginning to fade when I felt a large outburst of energy not far from where I was. I followed it. As I approached, the spirit of the one called Voldemort fled past me. I continued on and I found a room with two babies and an unconscious woman. They were you, your brother and your mother."

The youkai shifted and sighed, his arms now folded and looking into the distance, lost in the past. "Your brother was screaming, backlash from some spell having cut across his chest. Your mother was unconscious. And you…" Kuronue blinked and looked Harry in the eye. "Your soul had been thrown from your barely alive body and a residual curse was keeping it from returning. To save myself, I blended our souls and used my youki and your magic to break the curse in order for you to return. I was recognised as part of your soul and allowed to enter with you. I've been mostly asleep until Snap caused you enough stress to wake me up totally. Regaining my energy, so to speak."

"So you saved me to save yourself." Harry didn't sound too upset, so Kuronue nodded.

"Nothing personal. You'd be surprised at what some people will do to stay alive."

"I know." Harry waved it off, distracted by something else. "You said Gary was hit by backlash, but I was effectively dead had you not turned up." Harry narrowed his eyes. "This had better not mean what I think it means."

Kuronue grinned cheerfully. "If you think it means you're the real 'Boy-Who-Lived', then, yes, it means what you think it means. But don't worry. As soon as I finished sifting though your mind, I began planning."

"And I suppose that has to do with forcing me into shopping tomorrow." Harry bit out, still a little sore on that subject.

Kuronue nodded, totally unrepentant but reasonably serious again. "Yup. We'll need some things for what I have planned."

Harry sat down Indian style. Kuronue grinned a moment before swooping down, picking up the startled Harry before flopping down himself and settling his other half onto his lap.

"The way I see it, you have two ways you can go. The first is that you stay here with people who don't know you, protecting a brother who looks down on you and takes the rep for what you did, stay at a school where there hasn't been a year where your life has been in danger, probably eventually die as a minor part in the war and Voldemort wins, destroying all you know in the process."

Harry rolled his eyes and resigned himself to the fact that wriggling wasn't going to get him out of the lap he was placed in like a child, so he settled back into the curve of the slender but much larger chest.

"I kind of figured that would probably be my life ages ago."

"I know you did." The winged man patted the boy on the head. Harry pouted. "I can't live in your head and not know how and what you think. Now, back to the second path. Ya know that Letter of Invitation you got from that other school on your eleventh birthday? The one that came before the Hogwarts letter? Well… "

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Reviews are happily accepted. 


	3. Chapter 3

**_Disclaimer:_** I do not own anything recognised as belonging to other people.

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Harry followed his mother into the Potter Family vault with a bottomless money pouch, his now thigh-length hair bobbing in a high ponytail. While his mother was occupied with filling her own pouch and chatting with the goblin who brought them down, Harry was removing as many galleons to his pouch as was possible.

'_**Step 1: Get hold of as much money as possible over the course of several visits. We'll need it for some of the things we're gonna buy.'**_

**(space)**

Lily, otherwise occupied talking to Augusta Longbottom, nodded distractedly when her eldest son told her he was going out into muggle London for some clothes shopping.

While in the small alley between the entrance and the Leaky Cauldron, Harry removed the dark green robes he wore and stuffed them into another bottomless pouch in the pocket of his faded, tight, 'a size too small' blue jeans and adjusted his black T-shirt before entering the mostly empty pub, keeping his head down.

He reached the door and was out and in the stream of people before anyone even glanced at him twice.

He wandered for a bit before his roommate murmured in his mind, '_That one. Next to the teeny-bopper junk jewellery store.'_

Harry didn't look back as he went into the dark clothes store, 'My Chemical Romance' playing on a sound-system.

**(space)**

'**_Step 2: We need a new wardrobe, preferably muggle. In fact, preferably an entire new look would be good.'_**

It was three hours later when Harry suddenly slid into a seat beside his mother. Lily turned, startled, from her conversation with Molly Weasely.

"And where have you been?" She demanded immediately.

Harry gave here an odd look. "I told you. I went shopping."

Lily promptly blushed and turned back to complete her conversation. Stuff like this happened so often it wasn't funny.

The newly realised demon vessel ordered a Caesar salad and a banana milkshake.

'_The fuck is this rabbit crap?'_

Harry chomped on a piece of lettuce. '_If you had looked into my knowledge banks, you would know that I'm allergic to lamb and pork. Chicken's okay, but beef and fish are kinda expensive. Besides,' _He speared another piece of lettuce. '_Roughage's good for you.'_

Kuronue snorted, but nevertheless allowed his other half to finish his meal in peace.

"I need to pick up some books from Flourish and Blott's, then we're going to the Ministry for some forms for you and Gary to get apparition licences."

'_JACKPOT!'_

'_**Step 3: Procure some books for training and reference.'**_

'**_Step 4: Acquire an apparition licence.'_**

Harry gave his mother a half-distracted smile. "That's fine. I wanted to get some new reading material anyway. School books get boring after a while."

Lily smiled and stroked her eldest's hair behind his ear.

"Come along then, dear."

Harry stared after Lily's retreating back, honestly startled.

It had been years since Lily had shown him that kind of affection.

**(space)**

Despite not being all that thrilled that he was here for shopping, Flourish and Blott's was Harry's favourite store. Knowing exactly where what he wanted were, he nodded where he was going to his mother and moved to the second floor where the older, less mainstream books were kept, snagging a floating trolley on the way up.

Harry started with the right and scanned each and every book he passed. By the end of the first of seven aisles, he had six books. He was on the third aisle with fourteen books when he was interrupted by someone slapping his arse.

Harry bolted upright, totally shocked.

'_Oh My-!'_

'_-Fucking God!! Kill them NOW!!'_

Harry had twisted and sucker-punched the perpetrator without really thinking about it.

The person, now revealed to be a guy with spiked up black hair, was collapsed onto the floor, clutching his gut and gagging. His three friends were standing back looking mortally embarrassed and startled. They were obviously not from around here. Muggle clothes in Diagon Alley were a big sign over their heads that they 'Didn't Belong'.

Harry glared, thoroughly disgusted with the guy's behaviour.

"Next time, make sure the girl you're going to hit on is, indeed, a girl, as failure to do so can result in some uncomfortable questions."

The guy on the floor nodded weakly and Harry went to pay for his books, still fuming.

Hell, Kuronue was still fuming and that was the kind of thing _he'd_ do. _'-I mean, the **nerve** of that guy-!'_

Lily turned and smiled at him from by the counter. "Did you find what you wanted, dear?"

Even after years of flying under her radar and in the back of her mind, his mother's smile still managed to wash away Harry's lingering irritation.

He returned her smile. "For the time being. But I'd like to come back in a week or so for anything I may have missed."

"Alright, dear. Pay for your books and we'll go to the Ministry."

"That'll be forty-seven galleons and two sickles." The two greened eyed magic-users looked to find the clerk had already rung up the books and put them into a reduced-size bag.

Harry handed over the money and took the bag.

He didn't notice that the four boys from earlier were watching him leave with his mother.

**(space)**

It had been relatively easy to make an appointment for the mandatory classes and apparition tests. Not to mention with the revelation of Voldemort on the loose, people had been moving overseas or sending their children to overseas schools, meaning he could slip away in the tide of children going to other schools. With his long hair, no one recognised him when he got a pamphlet for the school he was going to try to get into from the Education Inquiries desk and Lily believed his lie about wanting to know when his OWLs would be sent out.

The school he had enquired about was built on an undisclosed location and only accepted the best of the talented and most powerful. To get in, one had to send the aspiring student's entire academic history, sit though an interview and complete a test with over ninety percent correct to be able to get in. It was next to unheard of to receive an invitation. Not knowing anything about the school in question at the time, little Harry had hidden the letter in the hidden compartment in his chest of drawers so he could go to Hogwarts with his brother.

Now retrieving the letter and dusting it off, Harry went in search of his mother, thankful that James had taken Gary out flying, regardless that Harry was the Gryffindor Seeker and Gary was reserve Keeper.

Kuronue hummed encouragingly when he found her in the den.

"Mother? Can I have a word with you?"

Lily looked up from her romance novel, surprised. Seeing who it was who wanted her attention, she smiled, put her book down and patted the space on the couch beside her.

"What is it, dear?" She inquired when he sat down gingerly and noted the royal blue letter with silver embossment around the edges. It was not the sort of thing she would have thought would be sent to Harry; Gary certainly since he was the Boy-Who-Lived, but not Harry.

Harry handed her the letter. "I got this when I turned eleven." Was his only explanation.

Curious as to what Harry's oddly social behaviour of late was about, Lily unfolded the powder-blue coloured and, again, silver embossed high-quality parchment, the faintest scent of violets and rain wafted off the parchment faintly. Even the writing was in silver ink.

'_Dear Mr Harry Potter,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been invited to attend the Three Towers Institute of Sorcery. _

_Three Towers is a highly selective establishment taking in only the best worldwide. It is a relatively small school with no more than five hundred and twenty students at any given time. The course runs for an optional eleven years as both a school and a University, though the latter is only accessible by students who have attended for more than two years._

_Even if you should choose not to attend initially, production of this letter in later years will allow you to be interviewed for acceptance above any other applicants._

_We hope to hear from you before August 15th._

_Sincerely,_

_Alucard Adrian Tepes_

_Deputy Principal of Three Towers Institute of Sorcery.'_

Lily read though the letter twice before she stopped. Even she had heard of Three Towers Institute; she had dreamed of going there as a girl. There had been some speculation that Gary was invited to attend when it was leaked that a British child had been sent a letter, but when all the British First Years had been accounted for in the three European schools, it was presumed to be a myth.

But here, in her hands, was proof that the myth existed in factuality…in Harry, the child she had never really understood or even tried to understand. They hadn't even considered Harry might have received an invitation to any school but Hogwarts, despite the apparent evidence that the boy was highly intelligent and powerful magically even as a small child.

She turned to her eldest child, a little upset, but she didn't know what at. "Harry? Why didn't you tell us?"

The boy beside her shrugged, watching a pair of Granian frolic in a painting across the room, idly twirling a finger in a long lock of hair that had fallen loose of the makeshift ponytail.

"You wouldn't have allowed me to go. Besides, I wanted to stay with Gary. Heaven knows he was the only one to play with me before his head began to swell at school."

Lily flinched a little. Thinking back, Gary _had_ always been playing with Harry until the holidays after his first year at Hogwarts, when, she admitted, a little shamefaced, he had become a little conceited. And Harry…

Lily abruptly realised that all she knew about Harry's school life was when Gary mentioned him in passing or Sirius had asked him about his schoolwork when was over. The elder twin had just faded into the background since Voldemort had attacked all those years ago.

_And she hadn't noticed._

"Why would you think we wouldn't have let you go?" Lily abruptly demanded as it occurred to her.

Harry didn't look at his mother. "I'm just Gary's brother. You wouldn't have liked that I got the letter and he didn't. Probably would have spouted something about favouritism if Gary couldn't go as well. But I am also aware that you would have been perfectly happy to let Gary go to Three Towers and I to Hogwarts had the positions been reversed."

Lily opened her mouth to refute those hurtful words, but Harry suddenly gave his mother a sharp, accusing look and she choked on her own words at the realisation that that was how it really _would_ have been carried out. Neither she nor James would have wanted Harry to overshadow Gary so visibly.

And it made her want to crawl under a rock and hide from the world.

Lily turned her green eyes back to the pale blue letter she still held in her hands.

"Why give me this now?" She asked softly, tentatively.

Her own eyes looked at her from a youth's face, saying _'You know why.'_. "I want to go there for the remainder of my schooling."

Caving under the guilt, Lily nodded. "Alright."

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Reviews are happily accepted. 


	4. Chapter 4

**_Disclaimer:_** I do not own anything recognised as belonging to other people.

**AN: **For those who wondered, I probably should have clarified who Alucards is. I'm actually using the Alucard who is the half-human, half-vamp son of Dracula, the main playable character in **_Castlevania; Symphony of Darkness_**. 'Alucard' is like 'Dracula' in that it is not his real name, it's actually 'Adrian Farrenheights Tepes' or something.

Dumbledore will be sorted out in the next chapter.

For those who asked, this will probably turn into a Harry/Kuro/Kura/Hiei fourway or something.

Don't ask for lemons cause it probably won't happen. At least for ages and ages.

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Two weeks later, Harry Potter sat in the reception room of the Three Towers Institute of Sorcery, quite happily reading the newest issue of the Quibbler. To his left, Lily Potter nee Evans was reading a 783 page book on advanced defensive charms. To his right, Luna Lovegood was seated beside her father in usual unusual apparel, wand behind her ear and both herself and her father reading the Quibbler, only upside down as opposed to his sideways. Luna, with her extra sensory perception, had known who he was immediately and struck up a conversation on the newest findings about Crumplehorned Snorkaks.

There were seven other teenagers as young as eleven and as old as eighteen trying to transfer out of Europe. He recognised three other students from Beauxingtons and Durmstrung.

"Mr Potter? Mrs Potter? In here please." The two green-eyed magic-users looked up when one of the three interviewing teachers spoke from the doorway to the second of the three interview rooms.

The room was more of a study than an interview room or classroom. Books were in tightly packed, dark wooded shelves, the furniture was Victorian with royal blue cushions and various knick-knacks lay upon the desk and on the large windowsill behind the desk. The carpet was the same sky blue as the visible wallpaper. The gold plaque on the desk read '_A.A. Tepes'_.

The man behind the desk, presumable A.A. Tepes aka Alucard Adrian Tepes, the Deputy Headmaster, was a tall, beautiful, androgenous man with almost white platinum blonde hair almost as long as Harry's, winter-blue eyes and the whitest skin Harry had ever seen outside vampires. Harry quickly dismissed the possibility of vampirism since the man was sitting in a large, winged chair surrounded by a flood of afternoon sunlight.

As opposed to the robes favoured by most wizards worldwide, the man behind the desk was wearing a black and white aristocratic suit one would have expected to be the fashion in the 1600 hundreds and a long black cape with a silvery-grey underside. On the wall above the fireplace were a sword and shield that matched the outfit.

"Please be seated." The Deputy Headmaster gestured to the two chairs opposite his desk.

'_He's got a nice voice.'_ Kuronue purred out the 'nice' in a show of appreciation.

Harry was inclined to agree. It really was a nice voice; deep and soft with an undertone of thunder and authority. It was surprisingly mild in comparison with McGonagall's crisp, sharp tones.

As the man, Alucard, sat (_lounged_, Kuronue corrected admiringly), he regarded Harry thoroughly, chin resting elegantly on the back of his hand. Harry just stared back soberly. After a while, Alucard averted his gaze to the forms on the desk before him; a small, barely-there smile on his pale lips.

"I must say, Mr Potter, we were quite surprised when you decided to contact us about a transfer after so long. We had thought that you hadn't received our initial invitation." Harry gave a Gallic shrug in return. Whatever Alucard saw there caused him to smile again. "…Hmm. May I ask why you have decided to transfer so late in your schooling career?"

Harry gave the same vague shrug again. "Survival, mostly. For a school that's supposed to be one of the safest places in Europe, it is kind of disappointing that my life has been endangered every year within school grounds." Harry shrugged a third time. "And they don't give the kind of training I need for some of my innate abilities."

Both males ignored Lily's slight start of surprise, and maybe guilt.

"Indeed?" Alucard murmured, a pale brow rising slightly in amusement.

"Indeed." Harry agreed, nodding solemnly.

Alucard smiled again, pleased about something, and sat up straighter. He picked up a set of forms with his white-gloved hand and handed them across the desk to Harry. "Please fill these out with I go over your academic records with your mother. There are some discrepancies we need clarified."

Harry had already begun glancing through the sheets while Alucard spoke. "Just ask me about it. I doubt mother would know much about my schooling, as focused as she has been on helping my brother with his various issues."

Alucard glanced at the rather ashamed looking woman who had yet to speak at all as opposed to the usual parents who were talking about how great and intelligent and powerful their child was, non-stop, a slight movement between his eyes expressing his surprise. His brows rose in surprise when Mrs Potter neither met his eyes nor disputed the dark boy's comment.

"Very well."

The forms were pretty much 'Tick the boxes and sign your name' kind of forms, so he had no problems with them.

'_What year are you going into? Sixth. Has anyone in your family been accepted into Three Towers in the last fifty years? No. I've never even met any relatives. By what means did you receive an interview? Invitation. Are you sexually active?...** "Yo, Kuronue? Am I sexually active?" "Yes." "Okay."** Yes. Blah, blah, blah…Will you be requiring extra tutoring for any abilities, hereditary or otherwise? If yes, ask for form 2A. Yes…'_

"You're reports say you got a 'Poor' in History of Magic and yet you were the upper middle of the class. Why is that?"

Harry glanced up from the question he was focused on (_'Have you any mixed-race blood?')_ to answer the man. "The History of Magic Teacher's a ghost who drones in monotone about the Goblin Wars. It's generally regarded by the student body as a bludge period."

Alucard nodded and jotted something down on a notepad obscured by a horned and fanged skull.

"And Divination?"

This time Harry didn't even look up. "Tawnely may spew out a real prophecy every decade or so, but the rest of the time she's a right screwball who prefers to predict gruesome gory doom than really teach us anything. We had a centaur called Firenze for a while last year but he couldn't really compete with three years of bad teaching."

"Potions?"

"Snape loathes Gryffindors, plain and simple; doesn't help that he and my father can't be in the same room without flinging hexes. I've spent a great deal of my free time in flimsy detentions because of him."

"Ah."

Both males remained absorbed in their tasks for a few minutes while Lily tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. Every now and then, Harry would snort in amusement at a question and Alucard would glance up from his own papers, inquisitively.

Harry put his forms down before Alucard did and sat regarding the pale man quite seriously while he read the records and made notes. He finally set aside both records and notes. Cool blue eyes met Harry's brilliant green ones.

"Well, your Defence Against the Dark Arts are top of your class and, indeed, better than most of our own student's scores, and your Charms marks are almost as good. However, your Transfiguration marks are only just above average. Why is that?"

Harry didn't bother to shrug this time. "I've never really seen the point in temporarily changing something int6o something it is not, let alone a beetle into a botton or a hedgehog into a pincushion. Just about the only things I think it's useful for are shapeshifting, fighting and espionage; none of which are taught at Hogwarts."

Alucard's lip twitched. "I know some people who would disagree with you on that, but I, for one, am inclined to agree with you." He glanced at the notes again. "Care of Magical Creatures; you started off with high marks in Third Year but they began to drop until early Fifth Year."

"We started off on Hippogriffs until an idiot was stupid enough to call one a 'great, ugly brute' while petting it. We were stuck with flobberworms for the rest of the year." The Deputy Headmaster's lip curled a little in sympathy. "Fourth Year we were looking after fire crab/flobberworm hybrids called Blastended Skrewts." Harry winced in memory, rubbing at a burn scar on the back of his thumb. "They farted fire; very painful. We had a substitute teacher at the beginning of Fifth Year who was fixated on Unicorns, so the boys couldn't get close until our permanent teacher came back and brought in a yearling foal."

Alucard was frowning as he nodded and wrote something on a piece of parchment that promptly vanished. Harry suspected it had something to do with the Hogwarts' teachers. Moments later, two more parchments appeared. His frown got deeper as he read them. The original reappeared and all three were sent off with a fourth to who-knows-where.

The man behind the desk looked up and smiled when he had read the returning parchment. "Because of the erratic teaching of the Hogwarts' teachers, the Headmaster has decided the students transferring from there should be given a week of tutoring here at Three Towers before the entrance examinations. If you would return in three days for classes, we would be happy to have you join us."

Harry and Lily both smiled and stood. They shook hands with the Deputy Headmaster and left.

**(space)**

Alucard settled back into his chair, a slight smirk on his lips as he regarded the door the Potter boy had just gone through.

He hadn't really had any high expectations of the boy when he had read the academic records, but the moment the boy sauntered into his office with his mother, he had been surprised by the different boys the reports and the real thing illustrated.

The reports portrayed a boy of talent in some areas but abysmal in others; probably lazy, loud, not inclined to work on something he found too difficult and very much inclined to talk back to his teachers.

The boy, himself, was an entirely different person from the one in the reports. Here was the boy who was invited to Three Towers and eleven. He sincerely doubted anyone at Hogwarts realised the incredibly potential for fighting and leading the boy had; he had noticed immediately, despite the small delicate build, long obsidian hair and big green eyes, that the boy carried himself like a predator and those eyes had darted around, upon entering the room, looking for potential enemies and noting exits.

Alucard, being the half-vampire son of Dracula and already quite old, concluded from the boy's comments that he was mostly independent and his terrible academic scores were due to abysmal teaching.

His smirk grew when he thought about putting the boy with the other boys in his year at Three Towers. Regardless of race, rank, gender or power, Alucard was certain the boy would eat them alive.

He was positively grinning when he thought of the Howler Headmaster Sesshoumaru was sending the Hogwarts Headmaster as he thought.

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Reviews are received happily, but please don't send these massive, hurtful flamers. It's like kicking a kitten. 


	5. Chapter 5

**_Disclaimer: _I own nothing recognised as belonging to someone else.**

Thank you to all the lovely reviewers, though I do find it kinda odd that almost everyone commented on Fluffy-san...oh well.

And, yes, this is a yaoi. Don't like it? Oh well. That's life.

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Harry rolled out of the fireplace first, curling over himself so he tumbled into a somersault and rolled onto his feet. As he shook out his long ponytail, his recently enhanced hearing picked up a pair of voices in the kitchen, which he almost immediately pinpointed as his father's and Dumbledore's.

He paused to listen, head cocked to the side.

So when Lily stumbled out of the fireplace moments later, the first thing she saw was her baby's thunderous countenance.

"What is it, dear?" She asked softly, glancing around for any sign of danger. If she was honest with herself, Lily was more than a little afraid of how her son sometimes reacted these days.

The boy glanced at his mother with cold, angry eyes before staring off in the direction of the kitchen. When he spoke, his voice trembled with suppressed rage.

"Dumbledore," he spat the name hatefully, causing Lily to flinch. "Is talking to father about how inadvisable it is for me to attend Sirius' Will reading tomorrow."

Lily frowned, troubled. "But why would he be bothered by that? It's such a little thing for someone like him to trouble himself with."

Harry glanced at his mother again. Something in the look made her feel as though she was a particularly dense child who had suddenly proven that she did, in fact, have a brain. It also made her feel both guilty and mildly insulted.

"I don't know why, but I have to attend the reading or my position as Sirius' heir will be made null and void, allowing Draco Malfoy to inherit everything that was Sirius'."

Lily almost gaped at her oldest boy. "Sirius made you his heir?!"

Harry actually turned his head to look at her. "You mean he didn't tell you? As his godson, in place of actual progeny, it is possible for him, as a pureblood, to name me his heir over even his own blood in accordance with old pureblood customs. He did so, not only to keep the rest of his relatives from lending even more financial support to Voldemort, but also because father dear told him that he was going to rename Gary the Potter Heir, leaving me with nothing. He loved me too much for him to allow that to happen."

The look on Lily's face clearly showed this was the first she had heard of it. But, seeing reason to allow, even push, him to go and none for him not to, Lily nodded her agreement and moved firmly down the hall to the kitchen to head off her wayward and reckless husband from totally alienating their oldest son and potentially sending him Dark. And she had no doubts that that was what would happen. She had noted his occasional spiteful tendencies of late.

In the last two weeks since the shopping trip to Diagon Alley at the beginning of the holidays and the subsequent revelation of the letter the day after, Lily had observed her eldest and felt a sense of awe and a little intimidation around him. Harry, her quiet little Harry, was in fact a tiger to Gary's lion. Gary was a powerful, charismatic wizard to whom people flocked, but Harry…

Harry was the one to whom everyone deferred, even adults. He was even more powerful than Gary and a force to be reckoned with; more grey and amoral than dark, preferring quiet solidarity to Gary's social world.

As much as she didn't want to admit it, Harry really was the greater wizard of the two. Lily had gone over and compared her sons' school reports and Harry had done much better hands down. He was the Gryffindor Seeker while Gary was reserve; Harry was Flitwick's favourite as well as Sprout's while Gary was only just on McGonagall's good side, and that was probably only because he was in her house. No matter how she compared them, Harry always came out on top. He was even more physically attractive than Gary, despite being an identical twin.

So, as she walked into the bright kitchen, Harry trailing behind like a dark shadow, it occurred to her that Dumbledore had noticed as well and was trying to hold Harry back so he wouldn't overshadow Gary.

Which, even she acknowledged, would turn out badly. She highly doubted Harry would take it sitting down, let alone _lying_ down.

Lily entered the room just as James was opening his mouth to agree to Dumbledore's suggestion.

"James?"

The Marauder's mouth snapped shut and his attention was totally shifted from the headmaster to her. She had never been more grateful that her love had the attention span of a goldfish. That is, nonexistent.

"Lily-Love!" James jumped up with a grin and twirled her around.

Harry, she noticed upon being put back down, had taken up residence beside the door, arms folded and glaring darkly at the old wizard standing serenely by the table.

Lily usually didn't notice such things, but she couldn't help but feel that the old wizard was vexed with their sudden appearance. Nevertheless, she put on a pleased face.

"Albus! It's wonderful to see you so soon!" She beamed. "What brings you to our humble home? Would you like some tea?"

Dumbledore beamed back, eyes twinkling. "Lily, my dear, it's lovely to see you again! Tea would be lovely. I was just talking to James about Sirius' reading."

Lily bustled to the stove and began boiling the jug, set out four cups and a plate of biscuits. "Oh? What about it."

"I think it would be…inadvisable for Harry to attend tomorrow."

Lily felt rather than saw Harry's glare intensify, but nevertheless, Lily didn't alter her tone from its cheerful matronly pitch. "Now, Dumbledore, you know that won't happen. Harry is a big boy and he can make decisions on his own. Besides, Harry was like a son to Sirius, so it is only natural that Sirius made him his Heir. Harry has to attend the reading or his claim as Heir will be made void."

"Sirius WHAT-?!"

Lily turned and frowned at her husband. "Really, James. I would have thought you would at least have remembered Sirius telling you he would after you told him you were going to rename Gary the Potter Heir."

Harry smirked from his position by the door. Looks like his mother wasn't quite past redemption yet. Though he did find it odd that Kuronue was glaring brutal bloody DEATH at Lily from within the dark recesses of his mind. And growling...

Harry frowned.

(**space)**

_He was hot. So hot he didn't know how his lungs could continue their ragged breaths._

_Long nails ran down his sensitive wings, causing his back to arch in ecstasy._

_Hazy golden eyes haloed by glowing white hair watched him from where a skilled, smirking mouth was attached to his bare chest._

_Those skilled hands dropped to the waist of his tight leather pants. The belt was removed and the buttons unsnapped. The hands were removed, causing a soft, plaintive trilling to crawl out of his throat._

_The hands returned to unbind his hair from its leather band. His partner had the oddest obsession with his hair. Something soft and furry brushed at groin level, causing one of his hands to snap out and grab it._

_A throaty whine echoed around the den from his lover. The hands in his hair suddenly tightened, dragging him over for a savage kiss, hips suddenly slammed together._

_He pushed the other back, falling on top of him with the fullest intention of—_

**_(space)_**

Harry shot up in bed, breathing heavily and mortally embarrassed. That was _so_ not a product of _his_ mind, so—

'_KURONUE!!'_

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I was bored, so sue me. XP

I like reviews. Do you? If so, press this prettiful button down here in the corner. :3


	6. Chapter 6

**_Disclaimer:_** I do not own anything recognised as belonging to other people.

**_Answers to Reviewer's questions...and then some:_**

As said before, it's going to be a HarryxKuroxKuraxHiei foursome...probably.

For those who wondered, wonder no more. No, that was not Hiei in the book shop, it was some annoying little st who will be taking Draco's place as protagonist at Three Towers.

In this, I've made Harry three or so years older than Kurama because Harry was already fifteen moths old when Kuronue died (if you read the fine print) and, despite how it may have seemed, I beleive Youko would have survived at least a year after Kuronue died before pushing up daisies.

No, the Reikai Tentai are not going to school with him. They will not meet up for a few years, well after the Dark Tourniment.

Lastly, I'm also working on a kinda lemony one-shot prequel to this story about Kuronue's life before he died. The lemon won't be essential to the plot-line though. It's called **What Came Before.** Should be up soon. ;)

And some characters from Maburaho will turn up, so for those who dn't know that particular Anime, you've just GOT to look it up. It's DA BOMB!

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It was nearly noon and Kuronue was still apologising every now and then for the wet dream. While Harry had been initially irate at youkai, it had long since given way to curiosity.

And mass irritation that Kuronue was _still_ apologising about the dream even after Harry told him it was fine.

Harry glanced at the clock above the Goblin's chair. There were only two minutes and thirteen seconds left before the doors would close and the will reading would commence, regardless of whether or not all the beneficiaries were present.

As far as he could tell, everyone was present. There were several people he vaguely recognised as being members of the Order of the Phoenix. Albus Dumbledore was there, as were Professor McGonagall and the Tonks Family.

Hestia Jones was looking red-eyed from crying. His respect for her went up. Hestia had been Sirius' girlfriend of nearly two years and Harry had gone with Sirius to pick out an engagement ring. He didn't know whether Sirius had proposed or not, but Harry was sure she really did love his Godfather.

Various distant relative had also turned up since Sirius hadn't had any progeny to name his Heir. They were spread in small groups around the room.

Gary was sitting across the table from him, happily chatting to Hermione and Ron. Ginny had settled herself to Harry's left, much to the chagrin of both Harry and Kuronue, and attached herself to his arm in what she probably thought was a comforting manner. Lily was seated to _her_ left and smiling in a way that inferred that she knew what he was thinking and found it amusing.

If she knew what he was really thinking, she would have been horrified as it involved peeling little Ginvera Weasley's fingers from his arm, breaking all the bones in her arm in the process and slapping her with the limp appendage.

James was seated next to Lily, comforting Remus on the other side.

To Harry's right was Luna Lovegood, reading some kind of comic book.

'_Can't you just bite the red-haired wench's head off and be done with it? Her simpering's getting on my nerves.'_

Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes. _'Been there, done that. She just passes it off as a phase and comes back later. You live in my head; you should know that.'_

'_Sod off. I refuse to listen to these wild allegations!'_ Kuronue did the metal equivalent of turning his back, folding his arms and snootily putting his nose in the air.

Harry blinked slowly at him._ '…Allegations?'_

'_I didn't claw my way to the top of the food chain to eat roughage!'_

'…_Kuronue?'_

'_I have been abducted by the Borg and reliably informed that resistance is futile.'_

To the side, Luna had quietly put down her magazine and was watching the minute changes on her only real friend's face. The current one had changed from tolerant distaste to befuddlement and a little fear. It didn't escape her that he was turned inward and hoped to whomever was listening that he wasn't suddenly having a revelation that he was, in fact, truly-madly-deeply in love with Ginerva Weasley, because that would just be weird given her resemblance to his mother.

Meanwhile, Harry continued his conversation with his roommate. _'Kuronue…the Borg aren't real and these allegations? The only thing I'm accusing you of is not paying attention to detail and-Blah blah blah…'_

Kuronue tuned out his little baby bat's lecture and looked around with Harry's eyes. The odd little look on Luna's face was just sooo cute…Oh shit! Did she suspect something? She was smiling at him in a knowing fashion. Oh crap! _She knows_!

**SWACK! SWACK! SWACK!**

Harry broke out of his rant, Luna turned her attention to the Goblin and Kuronue breathed a sigh of relief.

Harry signed the witness statement idly and turned his attention to observing the reactions of the various peoples around the room.

**(space)**

It was so worth it, Harry decided as he finished the Gringotts paperwork, just to see the look on Draco Malfoy's face when the Lordship of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black was given to the one person who managed to foil all his attempts at tripping Gary Potter down some random staircase to his doom time and time again.

Despite Gary's boasting, Gary wasn't Draco's archenemy; Harry was. If Harry had decided that he would accept Slytherin as his House, as opposed to Gryffindor, Draco was very much aware that the green-eyed brunette would be the Slytherin Prince. It got the blond dragon's hackles up every time the boy entered the room.

Harry personally thought the whole thing was hilarious.

When he left the office of his solicitor, Grabbernook, Harry wandered down the corridor to where a lesser goblin was waiting to take him down to the Black Family Vault.

As predicted, neither Gary nor his father had waited for him and had gone on home.

Gary, from what he could tell, was feeling rather slighted that Harry was now the lord of an ancient and powerful pureblood family (making him legally an adult to boot) whilst all he'd gotten from Sirius' was a measly few thousand Galleons (150 000 to be precise) and a book of pranks (one of only four written by the Marauders (Harry already had a copy)).

James was unhappy that Harry was Sirius' heir (though why, James couldn't tell you), but he mostly ignored his Slytherin-ish older son so it was relatively easy for him to barely look at the boy.

Various other people were annoyed because they were related to Sirius, most notably Draco Malfoy, who threw a fit and was thrown out halfway through the reading.

Dumbledore was unhappy because he had been thwarted. He'd even put wards on the front door as he came in to keep the boy out. How was he supposed to know Harry had already been in the reading room a half-hour before Dumbledore arrived?

Granger and Weasley had followed Gary's lead and Granger actually had the gall to lecture Harry after the reading for cheating Gary out of his inheritance.

Predictably, Harry had verbally shredded Hermoine Granger and informed her that she obviously wasn't _his_ friend since friends stuck up for one another. Ronald and Hermoine had decided they didn't want to be friends with him anymore and told him so.

He's shrugged. "Whatever." And wandered off with Grabbernook, not particularly looking that shattered.

Little Ginerva had found herself dragged off by her brother so she wouldn't 'fraternise with the traitor'. Harry wondered if Ronald actually knew what fraternise meant.

The only people to actually congratulate him were his mother, Remus (who said something about Padfoot being proud of him), the Weasley twins (he was their silent partner, after all, and he did send them some wonderful pranking ideas) and Luna (who suggested he think up a name to be inducted into the Black family as).

While he had stared at the dotted line and tried to think of a suitable name to give himself (he personally thought Harry was a rather bland name) the obnoxiously humming Kuronue had piped up.

'_You know, my name means 'Black Crane'.'_

Harry looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully. '_That'll work.' _And he wrote Crane Black in the necessary spaces.

Shaking out of his thoughts, he made a beeline for Lily, who was looking in the window of a nearby shop as she waited for him.

"I'd like to check Flourish and Blott's before we go home. After all, I am going to the cram school tomorrow afternoon."

After the initial surprise that caused her to start, Lily found the suggestion a good one. As they disappeared into the musty shop, she asked curiously, "What name did you choose?"

"Crane Black."

"Ah." She thought about it. "It's a good name. It suits you."

Harry blinked at her a moment before giving a self-conscious, truly happy smile. "Thank you."

Both were oddly cheerful after that.

Stepping out of the book shop after his mother, laden with a further thirty two books, Harry happened to glance to the side and paused for a moment to regard the mewling, scraggly length of brownish-violet fur in the puddle of muddy water. Usually he wouldn't think twice about walking away, but the sick cat-creature sent his extra-sensory senses up the wall and down the other side.

"Come along, dear."

Harry glanced down the street to the entrance of the Leaky Cauldron where his mother was waiting. Hesitating a moment longer, he swooped down, bundled the cat-thing in his cloak and hurried after Lily.

**(space)**

Later that night, Harry was seated on his bed, reading, his hand idly petting the cat-thing's soft fur and half-listening to Lily chew James out for being especially snide to him earlier at dinner.

Once clean, the cat looked vaguely like a creature he had once seen on a children's cartoon called 'Pokemon' when they had gone to see Lily's muggle sister. It had been a doglike thing called 'Vaperion'.

Its fur was a dark, murky violet with a wonderfully silky texture and a mane around the neck and shoulders like a lion. A ruff ran out of the mane and down the creature's spine to the tuff on the tip of its tail, where three odd, and most probably poisonous, spines were hidden. Its basic bone structure was almost exactly the same as that of a fine-boned cat, though it had a few more vertebrae and two extra sets of ribs.

There was a slight mew from beside him.

Looking down, Harry found himself looking into large black eyes that drew him in. In those two eyes he saw universes exploding and stars being born.

Then the cat blinked, yawned and went back to sleep, purring like a motor.

'…_Harry?'_

The host frowned at the strained voice Kuronue used, still regarding the cat curiously.

'_Yes?'_

'_That's the false form of a behemoth.'_

Harry froze, tensing up. So _that's_ why Kuronue was sounding so stressed.

'_Behemoth as in 'Absorbs any and all magic before devouring the castor; M. O. M. Classification: XXXXX' Behemoth?'_

'_Yes. That Behemoth.'_

'_Ah…Well…It hasn't eaten me yet. Maybe it likes me.'_

Harry didn't sound too confident and Kuronue made a low keening sound of stress.

Harry was understandably in no hurry to wake up the sleeping kitty.

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I love reviews. So tasty.

PS. Please ignore Kuronue's insanity. I'm pretty sure it's not contagous...Pretty sure...

Feed me:3


	7. Chapter 7

**_Disclaimer:_** I do not own anything recognised as belonging to other people.

**To my Reviewers:**

Hegwig: She's around, just hasn't turned up yet. She'll be along later.

The name 'Crane Black' was chosen because it could indeedie be interpreted as 'Black Crane in the Japanese form of introduction.

Crane/Harry is probably going to meet either Yukina or Hiei first, depending on which situation I settle on.

Youko and Suichi will be one person, just affected by the human mindset cause of reasons I'll explain later.

24 Reviews for the last chappy. WOOT! Keep 'em coming.

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**Fact of Life: 1**. Harry Potter, aka Crane Black, is the undisputed all-time ruler of Revenge Pranking. Closely seconded by Minamino Suichi of Japan.

**Fact of Life: 2.** Despite the obviously genius level intelligence of his identical twin brother, Harry, Gary was renown for forgetting this little fact and triggering Harry's 'Let's-Cheerfully-Destroy-Their-Life' mindset.

**Fact of Life: 3**. When you're being followed around by an animated doll in Hogwarts or, later, Three Towers, and everyone is trying to get as far away from you and the doll as possible, you know you've royally pissed of Harry Potter. The only known person to have had one of these dolls set on them more often than Draco Malfoy is Severus Snape. Please keep reading for more details.

**(space)**

Previously, Albus Brian Wulfric Dumbledore had always believed that these 'Molly Dollies' that Severus complained about at least once a month were mere pranks. He now realized the folly of underestimating the Molly Dolly. Or Harry Potter, for that matter.

He knew he should have kept the boy on a shorter choke-chain.

The Molly Dolly in the magic cage before him was a variation of an advanced Vodun(**1.**) doll. The doll was not something that could just be summoned; it had to be made. Given the process, which could take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to a few months, the doll was pre-made with the Vodun Rituals integrated into the porcelain mix, the moulds, the paints and the kiln; Overall a lengthy, complicated and hard process. Dumbledore, himself, would have trouble with it.

Not that he'd ever even touched on Vodun in the practical field.

Molly Dolly had turned up during the first trimester of the Potter Twins' second year at Hogwarts. She would follow the target around the school, giggling, and using a store of magic given to her from her Maker at her 'birth' to play malicious pranks against them. These 'pranks' included destroying everything in Draco Malfoy's possession, breaking everything in Severus' ingredients cupboard and spiking the food at the Slytherin table so everything tasted like ashes. _Reducto_s did nothing; she just reassembled herself in a matter of seconds and went back to giggling.

Molly Dolly was bad enough, but in the third year Tatter Rags turned up while Rag-'N'-Bones turned up at the end of fourth. These two were nothing like the pretty blue-eyed doll in her elegant blue taffeta dress and chocolate locks tamed by her bonnet.

Tatter Rags was what was, presumably, modelled after a comfort doll. Her hair was made of ginger wool down to her 'waist' and her eyes were black crosses, a zipper opening her mouth. Aside from her large grinning head, Tatter Rags had two arms, each with only a thumb and a glove-like appendage in place of fingers, the rest of her body hidden by the multicoloured rags that made-up her dress and gave her the name. Overall, the floating comfort doll wasn't that formidable…until she opened her mouth.

Unlike Molly Dolly, who was actively trying to make her target's life miserable, Tatter Rags was really rather friendly. Unfortunately, not only was she hyperactive and tended to dramatise everything that didn't need to be dramatised, she had a voice that sounded somewhere between dying cat and nails down a chalkboard (while just a little of scratched record thrown in). And she yelled everything…

_Everyone_ and their ears were glad she was only let out when someone really, _really_ ticked Harry off.

Like Umbrige, who went nary a week without one of the two being set upon her. She never actually found out who did it, thankfully.

Rag-'N'-Bones was a topsy-turvy doll made from porcelain, who, like Tatter Rags, floated everywhere (Molly Dolly had to walk). The dominant side, Rag, was a small delicate woman-shaped doll with short black hair, kitten-blue eyes, white skin and rose-red lips clad in a seemingly-filmy white and grey dress. Coldly calm, Rag was the planner. When they went into battle, Rag tipped herself over and Bones came upright, into control. Bones was her 'sister's' polar opposite. Bone-white hair falling to her waist, red eyes, grey skin, black lips, gazelle-horns and clad in a black and grey dress, Bones was _nuts_. She was malicious and violent and sadistic, listening only to her Maker and 'sister'.

Rag-'N'-Bones had, as far as Dumbledore knew, only ever been unleashed twice; once in the graveyard in Little Hangleton and once in the Ministry last year. Dumbledore was not comfortable with a sentient, _insane_ doll having that much destructive power at her finger-tips.

Now, the Molly Dolly.

**(space)**

Molly Dolly sat in the cage calmly. It had taken all day for the Headmaster to catch her since she had been setting traps most of the morning before turning up at lunch. The looks on the faces of the Hogwarts summer staff had been hilarious when they had noticed her peering over the other end of the lunch table at Dumbledore. It had been even funnier when she had scrambled up onto the table and walk up to the old man her dearest Daddy wanted her to annoy, proudly proclaiming in her sing-song manner, "I'm a Molly Dolly and I'm going to get you."

The stupid old man had smiled at her benevolently, eyes twinkling as he took his first bite of the meal.

And promptly spat it back out as it began to decompose on contact with his mouth.

She had giggled at him and taken off as the Professed Snap tried to blow her up…again.

Molly Dolly wasn't as smart as Rag-'n'-Bones, but she was still rather intelligent, so she was very much aware that the old man way contemplating whether to take her apart or simply destroy her. It didn't really matter what the old fart decided; it was ten to eight in the evening and the portkey built into her core structure would activate on the hour, taking her back to her Daddy.

Both Molly Dolly and Albus Dumbledore were shaken out of their thoughts when an unknown species of hawk (bright red) flew in with an envelope (also bright red) before flying out again immediately.

The two looked at the smoking Howler on the desk before Dumbledore sighed and Molly Dolly grinned.

Daddy would _soo_ love to hear about this.

**(space)**

Kuronue had majorly freaked out when, upon waking, Harry had found himself in the protective circle of a giant lion-like creature roughly the same size and weight as an adult bull.

The Behemoth, having shifted to its true form sometime during the night, was the same black-violet with the same fur texture and basic feature structure, but, aside from the massive size, it also appeared to have grown a trio of horns; two three foot bull horns in their mandatory position, pointing forward, and a smaller, broader horn sat in the centre of its forehead. A second look said that the previously cat-like muzzle had lengthened into an almost vulpine shape.

Upon waking, the Behemoth returned to its false form, much to the relief of a certain bat who was sure his baby bat was about to be eaten.

While also a little shocky himself, Harry still thought Kuronue was overreacting.

Brushing off his morning heart attack, Harry went about his first order of business for that day: Revenge against Dumbledore.

During the summer holidays following his first year at Hogwarts, Harry had found himself alone, Gary preferring to spend time with his school friends rather than his own twin. Initially hurt, little Harry had migrated to Unky Paddy's house for the summer. Since Sirius had been mostly at work (he'd been an auror), Harry had spent a lot of time in the Black Library and, oddly, talking to the portrait of Walburga Black.

Bored and finding the little boy rather cute, Walburga had walked him through, step-by-step, how to make a vengeance doll via the hidden workshop in the basement. Having read the 'How To' books enough and using a pre-made mould, Harry, under the guidance of the portraits in the workroom, had made Molly Dolly. Walburga, herself, had had a rather substantial collection of vengeance dolls, now void and still after her death.

She had crowed her acceptance of Harry at Sirius' decision to make him his heir to the roof ramparts, saying it was the only right thing he'd ever done. Harry was probably the only thing they'd ever agreed upon.

Harry's portable workroom, allowing him to work on his next doll at school and home, was in the old, multi-compartment trunk Walburga had insisted he take and Sirius had let him have that first holiday. In the room-sized compartment with its worktables, white 'clay' walls and collapsible kiln, each of his three vengeance dolls had their own glass cabinet where they 'slept' when inactive.

Harry released Molly Dolly and sent her off to annoy Dumbledore (keyed to the old fart with a three strands of long silver hair) before going to work on the doll he had been working on since Sirius' death, the previous one laying unfinished in a box of wood shavings for later.

The portrait of Walburga had sat silent and grave on the wall above the worktable since he started, out of respect or grief he could not tell. He took the medium-sized chest out and set the pieces out on his be.

This one was going to be his biggest yet.

The wooden frame was that of a life size dog, a little bigger than Sirius' animagus form. When he was finished with the frame, Harry would find some suitable material to make the black fur from: possibly the pelt of some other creature, possible woven from shadows like he knew he could from Kuronue's suggestions.

The whole point of this Grim-like dog doll was to create a doll that extracted vengeance through fear. How well he knew the superstitious nature of wizards. If they saw a Grim following them, he knew they would probably scare themselves to death on their own.

Kuronue, for his part, found the dolls creepy. He knew they were, in practicality, very handy for revenge, as the name implied, and espionage.

Brushing aside his unease, the youkai had suggested tips for the next three dolls after the unfinished one in the box, which Harry had written down in his logbook where he wrote down everything pertaining to his dolls, up to and including how they were mad, what they were used for and who he sent them after and why.

Finally getting bored just after lunch, hunger not-withstanding, Harry was hit by a sudden urge to make cookies.

Which he did.

**(space)**

Lily was seated at the large, scared wooden worktable in the kitchen, watching her eldest son calmly bustle around the room whilst mixing the fifth batch of cookie dough (Toffee Nut this time) and sipping her mug of hot chocolate.

She had always wondered when all those sweets suddenly turned up during the night.

Harry, or Crane as he now preferred to be called, was a mystery wrapped in an enigma and boxed in a puzzle where the only key was a riddle.

This morning a purple cat had been sitting on his shoulder at breakfast, she had come up at lunch to find his totally focused on putting joint-hinges of a large dog-shaped puppet and now he had taken over the kitchen and, according to the prior sweets statistics, was going about making eight different batches of cookies, three different cheesecakes, a batch of cupcakes and three slices (usually Caramel Slice, Hedgehog Slice and Rocky-Road Slice).

Yesterday, Crane's schedule had been to put his books away on the large bookshelves the House Elves had moved into his room from the attic, care for the sick 'cat' he had brought home, make up a picnic lunch and go down to read under the willow tree by the garden pond until it got too dark.

She had also been surprised when, upon walking in the Manor Gardens earlier that day (something rarely done, despite the Potter Manor having one of the most beautiful gardens of any Pureblood property, second only to the Longbottom's), she had come across a large greenhouse down the back behind the rose vines filled with more magical plants than she could name. The House Elf caring for them had said it was Crane's garden.

This had caused her to go somewhere quiet and think for a while.

Her already monstrous guilt turned into a Leviathan when she realised she couldn't even name a single one of his hobbies and had only known that he liked Caesar Salads and sweets and hated beetroot and eggplant.

Lily watched her eldest patter around the room and felt like the Scum Of The Earth. Capitalised, even.

Both mother and son became distracted when a large, green, parrot-like bird flapped in the window bearing a silver-embossed royal blue letter.

* * *

(**1.**) Also called Voodoo. A type of grey-black magic border-lining Necromancy and Ritual-Based Curses. Requires blood at least (usually a mandatory three drops) and/or sacrifice at most (bigger the spell, bigger the sacrifice).

I love reviews.

**Next Chappy: **_Harry/Crane goes to cram school._


	8. Chapter 8

**_Disclaimer:_** I do not own anything recognised as belonging to other people.

I got...32 reviews...32?! **WOOOT!!! THANK YOU!!**

Ahem...

I probably won't go into detail on Dumbledore's Howler, but I may bring it up on occasion later in the story.

Harry's love of cooking isn't just limited to sweets, but, no, it doesn't come from Kuronue. It's entirely Crane.

...Hiei's gonna _love_ Crane with that sweet tooth of his. Thank you **Night Air** for pointing that out for me. I hadn't previously noticed that. ;)

Crane has long since distanced himself from the rest of his 'family', so he doesn't particarly care about what happens at home. Though he has been warming up to Lily and he has a slight protective streak when it comes to Gary, because they're twins.

Three Towers is a school that will take in any race or hybrid that passes the personality test showing their ability to tolerate other races, hence the interview.

I didn't entirely come up with Molly Dolly and Tater Rags on my own; I based them of the Molly Dolly from a Sabrina the Teenage Witch Halloween special and Tatter Rags was based on Tatter Quilt (I think that's her name), a Guardian Arm from Machen: Awakens Romance (Dorothy rox!). Rag'N'Bones is mine, though.

And Dumbledore isn't so much trying to get rid of Crane so much as trying to keep him down so he doesn't overshadow Gary's 'Boy-Who-Lived'-ness... I still don't like him, though.

**Progress on What Came Before:**

I'm hoping to get it up in the next few days. It pretty much gives a look into the life and background of Kuronue from a few centuries before he died. It will have information that is pertinent to the later story, but I'll also work it into this story so those who don't like lemons won't have to read it.

IT IS A PREQUAL! Just so you know. Keep an eye out for it. :D

So I didn't get around to the classes, but at least he's _there._

* * *

It was driving Lily nuts.

The letter was just sitting there on the table whilst Crane continued his cooking spree with barely a glance at the blue envelope.

Flicking her eyes between her son and the letter, her hand went up to idly pet the green bird seated on the arm of her chair.

Crane finally put the last slice base in the oven and washed his hands, deciding that he'd open the letter before starting on the icings.

'_Dear Harry Potter/Crane Black,_

_Due to ineffective teaching at the schools of some applicants, all students applying for a position at Three Towers Institute of Magic are invited to a week long cram school before the placement exam. Students may enter or pull out of the cram school at any point in time. The classes will begin on July the 21__st__ and finish on July the 28__th__ in time for the exam on the 1__st__ of August._

_Below is a list of classes offered to your year. Please place an 'X' beside the classes you wish to participate in. You may choose eight classes and threes extracurricular. Your choices will automatically be recorded at Three Towers and a list of required equipment will appear in place of the choices. Thank you._

_A.A. Tepes_

_Deputy Principle of Three Towers Institute of Sorcery._

_Alchemy (Beginner)_

_Alchemy (Intermediate)_

_Alchemy (Advanced)_

_Runes (Beginner)_

_Runes (Intermediate) X_

_Runes (Advanced)_

_Charms (Intermediate)_

_Charms (Advanced)_

_Charms (Battle)_

_Transfiguration (General)_

_Transfiguration (Battle) X_

_Transfiguration (Animagus/ Metamorphamagus) (Extracurricular) X_

_Potions (Intermediate) X_

_Potions (Advanced)_

_Divination (Crystal and Scrying)_

_Divination (Tarot, Runes and Knucklebones) X_

_Divination (Trance and Dreaming) X_

_Divination (Traditional)_

_Herbology (Intermediate)_

_Herbology (Advanced) X_

_Herbology (Assistant) (Extracurricular) X_

_Care Of Magical Creatures (General)_

_Battle Magic (Intermediate)_

_Battle Magic (Advanced) X_

_History (Muggle; Ancient/Modern)_

_History (Magical; Wizard/Other Races)_

_Politics and Economy X_

_Muggle Studies_

_Physical Education (Mandatory) X_

_Weapons, Tactics and Strategy(Beginning/Intermediate/Advanced)(Extracurricular)X_

_Divination is the only subject that can be intermixed with other fields of the same core subject. Multiple Divination classes will be counted as one class choice._

_Signature: X'_

Crane signed his name and watched as the sheet absorbed the ink, reminding him rather painfully of a certain diary. Moments later, a new list appeared.

'_Thank you. All potential students are reminded that a full physical examination by the school doctor is mandatory upon arrival. Please arrive promptly at 10am on the 20__th__ July. If you wish to attend but cannot make in on the date, please let us know beforehand and something will be worked out._

_Runes (Intermediate):_

_Books:_

_Intermediate's Guide to Runes by Hohenheim Elric_

_Rune Dictionary and Thesaurus by Eldan Writer_

_Rune Exercises by Laya Stones_

_Equipment:_

_-Purified chalk_

_-A standard set of focus crystals_

_-Purified modelling clay_

_Transfiguration (Battle):_

_Books:_

_1001 Transfiguration Uses by Sharps Shifter_

_Transfiguration in Battle by Topsy Turvy_

_Princess, Had Experience With Princes, Seeks Frog by Ella Cinder_

_Equipment_

_-wand_

_-some form of spell-repelling armour_

_-A brain _(Both Crane and Kuronue laughed at that last one)

_Transfiguration (Animagus/ Metamorphamagus) (Extracurricular):_

_Books:_

_Unlocking Your Inner Animaniac by Bunny Bugs_

_Why My Inside Is Now Outside: Animagus Accidents by Horrifi Mistark_

_Face Thief by Dark Mousy (Metamorphamagus only)_

_Potions (Intermediate):_

_Books:_

_What's Cookin', Good Lookin' by Miroku Hoshi_

_Why My Inside Is Now Outside: Potion Pandemonium by Horrifi Mistark_

_Eye of Newt and Tongue of Dog: The Complete Encyclopaedia of Potion Ingredients and Their Uses by Belladonna NightShade_

_Equipment:_

_-Advanced supply kit No. 378_

_-Pewter, bronze, and gold cauldron._

_-Potion preparation kit No. 32_

_-Dragonhide gloves_

_-Full head gas mask_

_-Apron_

_Divination (Tarot, Runes and Knucklebones)(Trance and Dreaming)_

_Books:_

_Tarot Cards Through The Ages by Sakura Avalon_

_The Complete Dictionary of Tarot Cards And Their Meanings by Kero Sol_

_The Uses Of Runes In Divination by Julie Cornwall_

_Knucklebones by Angela Solumbum_

_Dictionary Of Dreams by Solum Slumbre_

_Dance The Trance by Clara Fied_

_Equipment:_

_-A set of Tarot Cards, any set will do_

_-A bag of Rune Stones (Note that those doing 'Runes' will be making their own set in the first week)_

_-A set of blank Knucklebones_

_-A focus stone or pendant_

_-A blank notebook or diary to record dreams_

_-Incense or scented oil burners of choice_

_Herbology (Advanced), (Assistant(Extracurricular))_

_Books:_

_Garden by Sonne Flora_

_Savage Shrubbery by Keller Undergroth_

_Equipment:_

_-Dragonhide gloves_

_-Enclosed boots_

_-Thick overalls_

_-Bandana_

_Gardening set No. 04_

_Battle Magic (Advanced) _

_Books:_

_Blowing Stuff Up by Pyro Mania_

_Why My Inside Is Now Outside: Duelling Dunces by Horrifi Mistark_

_Equipment:_

_-wand_

_-some form of spell-repelling armour_

_-Healing potion kit No.123_

_Politics and Economy _

_Books:_

_Democratic Disasters by Ne'er Dowell_

_Monarchy Mistakes by Ne'er Dowell_

_Dictator's Debacle by Ne'er Dowell_

_Patriarchal Pains by Ne'er Dowell_

_Physical Education (Mandatory) _

_Equipment:_

_-polo shirt and shorts_

_Weapons, Tactics and Strategy(Beginning/Intermediate/Advanced)(Extracurricular)_

_Books:_

_Dictionary Of Sharp Pointy And Not So Pointy Weapons by Tenten Akimori_

_Military Tactics And When To Use Them by Ferdanand Grindelwald_

_Pranking Strategies by Peeves The Poltergeist._

_Equipment:_

_-A weapon or two of choice_

_-Some form of armour'_

Crane had…honestly no idea that Peeves had published a book.

Looking through the list of thirty or so books, Crane was surprised to learn that he was only missing five of them from his library…s. He kept forgetting that he now owned the Black Library as well. He only needed Peeve's book, the Animaniacs Animagus book, the Transfiguration book by Ella Cinder and the three by Horrifi Mistark. He was also pretty sure he could find most of the stuff on the list around the houses (both the Potter houses (numbering 4) and the Black houses (numbering 7)), but the kits he'd need to go into town for and he would probably have to go into the Makai tonight (as Kuronue had kept badgering him to for nearly a week) for the Kusari Gama from one of the bat's old hideouts. He tucked the list into his pocket and wandered back over to finish cooking.

"I need to go to Diagon Alley tomorrow for a few more books and some kits."

Lily was seething, her attempts to see what was in the letter thwarted.

Only Crane noticed the green bird take off out the window.

'_You do know that bird was a talking bird from the Makai and probably understood everything going on in the room.'_

'_Yep.'_

'_Just checking. So we're going to the Makai tonight?'_

'_Ya-huh.'_

'_There's a weak spot about two miles to the north. Take the cat with you.'_

'_M'kay.'_

'_Are you listening to me?'_

'_Yeah.'_

'_YOU'RE NOT, ARE YOU?!'_

'_Huh?'_

**(space)**

Kuronue muttered a few nasty things in a degenerate form of Makainese Crane thought the bat might have forgotten he'd made Crane assimilate. The night sky was light up by three moons (one red, one blue and one purplish) and the sky itself looked vaguely like birthday cake vomit in colour.

Crane, clad in leathers and his long braid coiled into loops on the back of his head, pressed himself flat against the sprinting behemoth beneath him, hands entangled in the silky mane and feeling the hard muscles beneath him bunching and un-bunching with every bound. It was almost pitch black in the dark jungle, so Crane was very much pleased that there were very few beings out there willing to take on an adult behemoth. He didn't like what he was hearing with is bat-enhanced ears.

After three hours of riding the 'Very Dangerous Creature' through the dark jungle, Crane wandered into a cave hidden by poison-dart-spitting violets, flaring Kuronue's youki to drop the safeguards, and the behemoth in its false form resting across his shoulders. Following the youkai's quiet instructions, the wizard went up to a dust-covered cabinet and retrieved the Kusari Gama Youko Kurama had given Kuronue on the hundredth anniversary of their first time.

They were beautiful with enamel vines and flowers decorating the rippled blue steel of the blades, carved mimosa wood hafts and strong, dark green silk cords embroidered with small red petals sparsely along the lengths. Crane remained quietly respectful of Kuronue's pain and anguish.

Since the first time of active contact with his other half, Crane had begun to assimilate Kuronue's knowledge and some memories. He was very much aware of the bat's love for his once-partner as he felt it too, though to a lesser extent. All his memories of the beautiful silver thief carried with them love and passion, affecting how the wizard thought of the fox.

Turning to leave, Crane flinched and staggered when Kuronue let loose an abrupt, high-pitched keening. Glancing around for the source of his Other's distress, green eyes landed on a dusty shrine to the dead where, according to Kuronue's memories, the bat's sleeping pallet had once been.

The vessel padded over to the shrine, kneeled, bowed his head and clapped twice in respect.

'…_Take the pendant and mirror.'_ Kuronue told his human, voice hoarse with grief. '_But-'_

'_The pendant was my focus stone; made from my blood. You'll need it. The mirror is the Shadow Reflecter. It will show you anyone you can think of where ever they are. It'll help us later on.'_

Crane silently agreed, remembering the significance of the items. Grabbing them and putting them in the book bag he'd brought, he glanced around one last time.

And paused, regarding the item shining dully on the dusty pallet across the room.

He took that too: For remembrance; as a reminder.

The behemoth watched everything with his large liquid eyes, remembering for later, and there was a sharp pain above his hearts.

Someone his Master cared for had lived here, but had died.

And he hurt because his Master hurt.

They went home.

**(space)**

And here Crane had thought that Churches were the only place that used those ungodly uncomfortable pews.

He shifted on the bench outside the Three Towers Infirmary in an attempt to get comfortable. He knew it was useless but what else was he supposed to do? Lily was gone, there were no magazines or books around and his things were in the small dorm he'd been given. All he had was a sadly thick manila folder holding detailed records of all the injuries he'd accumulated since starting school. Reading _that_ would be depressing.

He knew he shouldn't have come early, but it was either here or at home with Dad and Gary. He vaguely wondered if Lily had even told them where he was going.

"Crane Black?"

Said wizard practically leapt to his feet and followed the tall, black-haired man into the room.

"As you may have guessed, I am Doctor Haruaki Akai," The man guestured to the plaque on his desk. "And I will be giving you your physical today while my sister and assistant, Shino Akai, will be examining the ladies. Before we start off, are there any injuries that could affect your performance in any way?"

THUMP!

Dr Akai looked down at the sizable folder on his desk, nonplussed, before looking up, obviously hoping it was a joke. Crane smirked a little apologetically, but still thoroughly amused.

"Every injury that's landed me in the Infirmiry since I started school." The Doctor raised a disbeleiving eyebrow. "I think there's a few diagrams in the back showing where the major injuries occurred." He added helpfully.

Dr Akai pulled out the diagrams and looked at them, pausing to read the bubble notes. There were six sheets with Madam Pomfry's tiny, tightly-packed writing around the diagram; three for broken bones, two for internal injuries and one for spell damage.

The doctor stood and pulled back an aquamarine curtain, revealing a hospital bed. "Please strip down to your underwear so I can get a better view of your injuries."

"M'kay."

Crane did as told and seated himself on the bed, clad only in his boxers, and took the time to study the doctor whilst he glanced through the notes.

Dr Akai was a tall sorceror with straight black hair to mind-back and a fringe that hung over his left eye. His eyes, behind their round, wire-rimmed glasses, were a disconcerting gold only a few shades duller than Youko's but brighter than Madam Hooch's. It was boasted in Medi-Witch Medium that Akai was one of the greatest medi-wizard in three hundred years and a child-prodigy to boot, getting his liscence to practice at seventeen. His most notable acheivement was the development of his signature 'Diognosis Lenses', which he appeared to be tacking out right now.

Crane regarded the box of twelve lenses, curiously.

Akai smiled and began to check the boy over with a blue one to check his bones, a green one to check internal organs, a yellow to check muscles and a green one to check for spell damage. It was only when he used the purple lense to check Crane's magic flow that he frowned and checked his notes. Looking up again, he narrowed his eyes speculatively and switched the purple one for the neon pink lense in the third row.

Dr Akai flipped to a new, blank page and wrote quite extensively, comparing the pink lense's notes with the purple's. He 'hmm'ed and 'haa'ed for a while before going to retrieve a thick old tome from the shelf by his desk and bringing it back over, his frown becoming more pronounced.

He stopped three feet from Crane and regarded him almost pityingly. "It is very fortunate that you should have a check up at this point, giving you time to prepare for what is to come." He told the boy cryptically.

Crane barely repressed the urge to twitch in annoyance, but reframed from waking the depressed bat from his dormancy. "Meaning?"

Akai sighed and put the tome onto the beside table. "Your body and magic are preparing for a rather violent heat cycle. Starting sometime early next week if I'm reading things right. You must have some bat youkai blood in you; you have all the pre-heat symptoms of one of them."

Crane nodded distractedly, all the whilst thinking of how he was going to brutally _murder_ Kuronue for this. "Bat chimera from the Northern Clan on my mother's side." Akai looked surprised at such a specific idea of where to look.

He nodded, nevertheless. "I'll look into the exact symptoms of that particular race and let you know what to expect if you come back tomorrow afternoon before dinner. Aside from that, you seem to have no lasting damage done, though I would have a mind-mage have a look at the chakra around your third-eye area before being sure. Until tomorrow then and could you send in the next boy."

Crane did twitch this time at the distacted dismissal granted to him.

If glares could shoot daggers, Dr Akai's back would be a mass of carnage.

He dressed and left the office, pausing only long enough to send in the boy first in line (Blaise Zabani, if he wasn't mistaken), and stalking back to his dorm room to have a nice long chat with his tenant.

* * *

Reviewing will earn you brownie points. 


	9. Chapter 9

**_Disclaimer:_** I do not own anything recognised as belonging to other people. 

I got 37 reviews (**does a happy dance**). I honestly didn't think this story would be this successfull. Thank you all for reading and reviewing. Here is the next chapter.

To everyone who picked it up, I apologise for the misspelling of Blaise Zabini's name. I'm usually pretty good with his name and I had it when they spell it 'Zambani', or worse, make him a girl. But it was late when I was finishing the chapter so I was tired.

To **Memories-of-the-Shadows, **no, I did not know that. Thank you for heading off that plot-hole.

I personally had fun making the book list. I'm glad it made some of you laugh.

To those who asked, Crane is sorta like Kurama; not a hanyou and not a full-blooded youkai, but something...else. Kinda a possession-type thing.

For those who wondered, wonder no more! The behemoth HAS. BEEN. NAMED!

BTW, for those who wanted it, **What Came Before** is now up in the M-rated section. I've already started incorporating that plot with this one in this chapter.

Che!

* * *

Classes started the day of arrival. Potential students were expected to arrive at 10:00am to settle in and have their physical examination before lunch. The first class of the day was started at 1:30pm and went until 5:00pm, leaving an hour-long break before dinner at 6:00pm and curfew at 9:00pm. From there, classes would start at 8:00am until lunch at 1:00 and continue until 5:00pm, dinner at 6:30pm and curfew at 10:00pm.

Crane couldn't say he particuarly liked the timetable, but he found it acceptable since they would only had five hours of a specific class to catch upwith.

His first class was 'Runes' in a large, airy room with single desks in six neat rows, white-wash walls and polished would panneling and posters relating to varius runes and discoveries about them. The desks were also clearly labelled with each student's name.

**(space)**

Ten minutes before class started, Crane was found by his teacher sitting at his designated desk and engrossed in reading '_Intermediate's Guide to Runes'_, his other books and writing materials placed out of the way around the desk but still readily within reach and his Runes materials in a small carry chest situated tidily beneath his chair.

Shanna Stone, a Shade with long sidhe scarlet hair and vibrant mahogany-brown eyes, could understand why this one had caught Alucard's attention faster than any student in all the time she had known him, and that was going on 400 years!

This one would be very powerful and dangerous if allowed to grow to adulthood. He attracted attention from those who understood power better than any stupid little wizard; which was to say every paranormal being _except_ wizards. She had also heard from Shino that Haruaki had sent the boy's medical file and his own notes on him straight to Sesshoumaru; something unheard of from a potential.

Five minutes before class was to begin, Crane hadn't moved for anything but to turn a page and Shanna had settled behind her desk to observe her students.

As the students flowed into the room, sharp brown eyes took in the potentials and immediately identified those who would be accepted and those who would not. There were twelve in her class of sixth years, eight witches and wizards from all around the globe and four who most definitely weren't human.

Shanna was momentarily unsettled when the four non-humans each paused when they caught sight of the Black boy before moving on cautiously, treating him like a large predator.

None of these four were exactly from weak or peaceful races. The girl, Klocia, was half-Cabyll-Ushtey, half Phouka, reputed to sometimes eat humans on both sides of the family and both declared 'Dangerous Creatures' by the Wizard Ministries. One of them, who could have passed as Crane's brother or twin, was a sidhe royal from the Unseelie court and seventh in line to the thrown; his name was Cald, or Calder or something. The other two were a male nekomata of around average youki level and a bat chimera from the Western clans of the Makai.

The second last person to enter the room also paused before actually approaching Black; a Spanish boy who showed a great deal of natural talent as a powerful Necromancer, if her magic senses were correct.

She settled back to watch the interaction, noting how the other four non-humans were also subtly listening into the conversation.

**(space)**

Crane turned the page and glanced over the diagram before moving to the writing.

"Black."

Crane flicked a glance up and back to the book.

"Zabini."

'_What do you want?' _remained in the air between them.

"Why are you here? From the way you have acted previously, one would assume you would have preferred to remain with you brother and…friends."

Crane shrugged, still reading. "Assumptions lead to mistakes more often then not. Besides, one does eventually grow bored with being ignored."

"Ah."

Zabini wandered off to his seat as the bells tolled the start of class.

**(space)**

Crane was coiled up on his dormitory bed in his small dormitory room, clad only in his boxers. Every locking and warding spell he knew was caste on his door and window so he could retreat into his mindscape for his little chat with Kuronue without fear of someone interrupting.

Phasing into his misty mindscape, Crane glanced around, noting that there were now tree-shadows just out of sight and florescent will-o'-the-wisps darted through the vapour and shadowy tree limbs.

Padding forward through the blue-green grass, Crane finally found the part on his mindscape Kuronue had made his own.

It was a tree; a tree of indeterminable species that was some thirty feet around the base and mottled with so many knots and knolls that that there wasn't a smooth expanse on the entire trunk. The large pale trunk rose up in and massive umbrella formation, darkening the expanse beneath its mist-wreathed boughs where only the will-o'-the-wisps darted.

It was between two of this tree's massive roots that Crane found his other, curled up into a tight foetal position, his wings cradling his body and quietly keening to himself as he slept.

Any lingering irritation faded from conscious thought.

Crane leapt daintily down into the small grassy enclosure and settled down against a large knoll to watch his other sleep.

While not one for crowds, Crane knew that Kuronue had a subconscious need for a single constant companion. Before Crane had been Youko Kurama, before Youko Kurama had been Taisho and before Taisho had been Madara; it was just the way he was.

This need for companionship was something Kuronue had unknowingly impressed into Crane, even whilst still dormant; hence the mortal boy's attachment to Gary, Sirius and, to a lesser extent, Walburga and Luna. Possibly even Neville.

But for some reason, it never extended to Ron and Hermione.

In a way, Crane was grateful that he had Kuronue. While a loner by nature, Crane didn't like being alone.

There was a song - a muggle song – that had touched him at a subconscious level, it suited them so well. He didn't remember the name of the artist or the song itself, but he remembered the chorus.

An almost bitterly sad smile twisted his lips as he reached out and traced the jaw-line, breathing out the words to his sleeping other.

Kuronue relaxed slightly under the barely-heard words, drifting into a deeper slumber.

It was a promise from the mortal to the demon. One that he knew he could keep.

He didn't want to be alone and neither, he knew, did Kuronue, so he bound them tighter together, entwining their souls closer together so if one of them died, the other wouldn't have to keep living alone.

'_No / You'll never be alone / When darkness comes / I'll light the night with stars / Hear my whispers in the dark / No / You'll never be alone / When darkness comes / you know I'm never far / Hear my whispers in the dark.'_

**(space)**

Crane was woken from his trance a few minutes before dinner would begin when a light body pounced on his stomach.

Glancing at his wind-up clock, the boy scratched the behemoth behind the ears.

"Thank you, Neko-Chan."

The violet behemoth mewled and rubbed against his hand affectionately.

Officially, Crane had named the behemoth Shyam; a Sanskrit name meaning black, dark and/or beautiful. Kuronue had agreed that it was a fitting name and Shyam hadn't objected. Crane had always taken naming things seriously; the name of his snowy owl, Hedwig, was a Germanic form from Hadewig, meaning battle or female warrior. He had never settled for naming something anything less than was suited for it.

Unfortunately for the behemoth's pride, Crane had already mentally dubbed him 'Neko-Chan'.

Stretching the kinks out and feeling too lazy to really dress up for dinner, Crane grabbed a pair of faded jeans and an oversized button down dress-shirt, pausing long enough to run a brush through his loose knee-length wavy hair, and was out the door without bothering to put on shoes.

Turning down the corridor, he didn't realise that the two potentials he had just passed had run into a wall because they were two busy staring after him in shock.

If he had looked back, he would have seen the glamour flicker to reveal a pair of young incuba.

**(space)**

Crane was used to people staring, so he didn't pay it any mind when he entered the dining hall and found a table where he could sit with his back to a corner, giving him a decent view of the room and making it nigh impossible to sneak up behind him.

He was presently joined by Luna, who asked him how class was, and, surprisingly, Blaise Zabini and a blood-red haired girl in the heavy-skirted, autumn-brown uniform of Durmstrung (an acquaintance of Zabini's) called Morvina Redfern. They were just deciding on their choices from the menu when a smooth, velvety contralto spoke from between Zabini and Luna.

"Would you mind if I joined you for the evening meal?"

Klocia, he thought her name was. She had been seated two desks back and two to the right. If his memory was correct, she had been one of the students who had been watching him closely. She had the welsh dark complexion with straight, silky dark hair almost as long as his own and big black-brown eyes. She was what was called exotically beautiful these days, he supposed, by human standards. He knew Ron and Gary would be drooling by now, but he couldn't bring himself to be attracted to this tall, slender beauty.

He waved her to the seat between himself and Morvina.

"Sure. Have a seat. It's not like anyone else is coming."

Klocia smiled and settled gracefully into the proffered seat, dark eyes heavy-lidded and seductive.

"Thank you. I am Klocia Glastyn."

Crane's eyes snapped up at the surname to regard the girl beside him warily. Now that he was looking for it, he was able to see the tapered tips of her ears.

The Glastyn, according to British folklore, was one of the Manx cousins of the waterhorse, Each Uisge, who haunted the sea and lochs, as opposed to the not quit as dangerous Kelpie who lived in flowing water. In horse form, it was known to lure the unwary onto its back and carry them into its watery home and eat them, rejecting only the liver. Its skin was said to be adhesive since it was nigh impossible to tear oneself of once on its back. There was a particularly gruesome tale of one taking awake seven little girls for dinner. If killed, it was supposed to turn into 'starshine', a jelly-like substance thought to be all that remains of a falling star.

It was truly surprising how closely related youkai were to true fairies and fey.

"Indeed."

The rest of the meal was spent in relative silence, though he did notice her choice of meal was black pudding.

Ick.

**(space)**

Deep in the Northern Makai, a sudden howl of laughed tore through a complex made of caves in a canyon wall.

Startled, many bat chimera poked their heads out of their dwellings, curious as to what could have been in that missive that had their Lady in such a good mood.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE HE ACTUALLY PULLED IT OFF!!" The voice cackled happily.

Many of the older chimera had a sinking feeling it had to do with their Lady's errant little brother.

The Lady was scary when it came to Kuronue.

* * *

**Note: **The Kelpie, Glastyn, Each Uisge, Phouka and Cabyll Ushtey are really from British folklore and are horse-shapeshifters. Only the Phouka isn't a waterhorse, rather it has a similar function to a Brownie or Boogle.

If you review, you get an imaginary 'I wuv you' bear.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer:**_ I own nothing recognised as belonging to someone else._

**Notes:**

_Incuba is the plural form of incubus. I think the plural of succubus is either succubi or succuba._

_I'm going to try to keep Shyam/Neko-Chan an unknown wild card. They probably won't find out what he is for quite a while._

_Thanks for the fey information goes to Katharine Briggs 'A Dictionary of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies and Other Supernatural Creatures'(1976)._

_33 reviews! BOOYA!_

In which we find Youko is alive.

* * *

Crane work up the next morning feeling like a mouse the cat had yet to kill. 

His neck hurt, he was having hot and cold flashes, his boxers had ridden down so low they were barely covering anything and sometime during the night his head had wound up at the foot of the bed with his feet under the pillow.

Even Neko-Chan had vacated the usual position next to his neck in favour of a bed that didn't move.

Taking all of this into account, it really wasn't surprising that the Crane that turned up for breakfast sat in the corner, drinking from a large mug of straight black coffee and glaring at an unoffending speck of dirt on the table.

The only one not worried by this bout of ill-humour was Luna, who sat quite contently next to him and smiled peacefully at nothing.

**(space)**

Luna was normally not considered a threat because of her placid nature and tendency to say odd things at odd moments.

However, a little known aspect of her personality was an obsessive compulsion to hoard information and find out everything she could about people by simply observing.

People were just full of little idiosyncrasies; Crane Black was no exception.

Luna honestly liked Crane: she liked how he would tilt his head just so when he was thinking, or how his left eyebrow tilted down slightly when he was remembering, or how he picked dirt from under his nails when he was planning on how to ruin someone's life and/or reputation…

…Where was she?

Oh, right.

She also liked how he used his body-language. When he was trying to fade into the background, you would barely notice he was there, but when he was being threatening or angry, then you didn't notice his short height of barely 5'2.

But what she really loved about him was when he dropped all pretences and let his natural body-language show.

Even if he weren't powerful, intelligent or filled to the brim with odd abilities, Crane's body-language said 'PREDATOR: WILL EAT THE UNWARY HAND'. A surprising about of bluffing and lying was done through body-language, and that was an art he had down to a T.

Everything about the way he moved, every gesture, every shift, every twitch in facial expression said he had power and he damned well knew how to use it, thankyouverymuch.

But right now, to Luna's undying curiosity, Crane was very much irritated and looking like he wasn't in the best mood to put up with idiots.

…Speaking of idiots, here came one now.

**(space)**

Today was Herbology, followed by Divination after lunch. He was really hoping Herbology would calm him down like it usually did. He was really going to be pissed if someone bothered him now.

"Hey, loser! What's a lil brat like you doing trying to get into a place like this? You should quit while you're ahead!"

…Like that.

Crane took a deep breath and levelled a truly arctic glare at idiot in front of him.

He was big and menacing, wearing the uniform of Durmstrung.

Deciding it was too early for a testosterone high, Crane set down his now empty mug and uncrossed his legs. Still seated, the booted left foot of the demon host arched up from the floor and kicked the Durmstrung boy in the balls.

Crane stood and stretched before reaching down and snagging three hairs from his victim before wandering off to get ready for class.

Given the situation and his own mood, the slight youth decided Tatter Rags would put an end to the boy's chances of getting into the school quite nicely.

Luna smiled dreamily before she, too, made her leave.

**(space)**

There was nothing taught in Herbology that Crane didn't already know. Unfortunately, his hopes of relaxing were shot into infinitesimal pieces by the moron to his left; a Beauxbatons boy if he wasn't mistaken. What was his name? Pierre something-or-other.

After the first ten minutes of the practical part of the class, Crane wanted to smack the boy silly. How hard was it re-pot plant fire-breathing snapdragons after they'd been taught the spell_ to render them immobile?_

Noting the speculative glances Crane was giving his pruning knife, the gentle, lady-like teacher, Florimell Chloris, asked him to come and help her trim the Blood of Lethe Roses in a side room when he finished long before the others.

Lunch was a nightmare. He ate his sandwich quickly and bade a hasty retreat from a pair of identical twin blonde bimbos (born vampires, if he wasn't mistaken) and hid in his room for the rest of the hour.

The Divinations Teacher, Rishi Akatsuki, covered the theory of Runes and Knucklebones in the first hour and moved onto Tarot cards for the next hour and a half, going over the variations of the decks, naming the more popular Tarot cards and asking students with different decks to explain the differences between their decks and the standard deck.

Crane's deck was 144 strong. Tarot cards, when not given as a gift, attracted bad spirits. While he, himself, did not know this, Walburga had and had pointed him in the direction of her great-great-grandaunt's gold-guilt deck in the hidden safe behind one of her ancestor's portraits upstairs, telling him to take it as a gift. There had been an instruction journal with the names and meanings of each card with it in the gold-panelled wooden chest. While having the standard 52 cards for the wands, pentacles, cups and swords, there were a further 92 other cards varying from totally different cards to variations of the standard decks.

Crane loved his deck and Akatsuki found it to be a very specific deck when it came to divining, rating a rare compliment from him.

The rest of the period class was focused on Trance and Dream Divining. Dreaming, Crane had looked into during the year when he had been passing the dreams sent to him from Voldemort down the Twin Link to Gary. Since they hadn't technically been Sight-induced dreams, his copy of Dictionary of Dreams hadn't been reliable to decipher from. However, his attempts to find out what the dreams meant, and the corresponding drive behind his search, had imprinted much of the knowledge he'd looked into deep in his mind, just waiting to be used.

Trancing Crane knew nothing about, so it came as a surprise to him when he was the first to fall under whilst staring into Kuronue's Pendant, even before others who had done it before. He wasn't even aware of it when it happened.

_-Trance-_

_Everything suddenly took on a red-hued gem-like quality. Looking around suddenly, he found the room empty, but still distinctly red._

'_**You're Trancing.' **__Crane started as Kuronue appeared next to him. The bat smirked. __**'Think of something, someone.'**_

_Crane looked around before focusing on the one person he was truly curious about: Youko Kurama._

_Here was a brief moment of vertigo and the sense of movement before the red-hue lessened and the two found themselves in a muggle hospital room._

_There were two people in the room; a black-haired Japanese woman with a kind but sickly face and warm brown eyes and at her bedside, tending a vase full of perfect red roses, was a boy of twelve or thirteen with dark rose-red hair and eyes more of a grass green than Crane's emerald orbs. This boy was strikingly pretty, true, but the one he was looking for was not in sight._

_Frowning and not noticing his other's keen regard of the boy, Crane willed himself to Youko Kurama._

_The vision of the world shifted a moment before resettling._

_A moment later, the red-headed boy had turned sharply and was regarding the room with the eyes of a ruthless predator. A pale shape momentarily flickered around the boy and both darker being flinched back._

…_Did this mean that Youko, too, had died…?_

_Less than a year after Kuronue had, apparently._

"_Suichi? Is everything alright?"_

_The boy-who-was-Youko turned and smiled at the woman reassuringly. "Yes, Mother. One of the nurses just startled me, is all." The boy sat at her beside and took her hand._

_The woman smiled weakly, but there was true affection there that was absent from Lily's voice and posture when speaking to Crane._

_Watching Youko with his human mother made the darker boy a little envious of the redhead._

_A clatter of noise from the doorway caused all four occupants of the room to turn as a doctor came in._

"_We're ready to begin the treatment now. I'm sorry, Minamino-san, but you're going to have to leave for a while."_

_The boy nodded his acknowledgement, patted his mothers hand one last time and stood._

"_Very well. I will see you soon, mother."_

_There was a shimmer of energy and Crane was jerked back to his body, Kuronue being dragged behind like he was attached by a bungy cord._

_-End Trance-_

The boy blinked his eyes a few times before lowering the faintly glowing Pendant and nearly blushed when he found the class was gone and his teacher leaning against the desk in front of his, arms folded and looking entirely too amused.

"That was a deep Trance, Mr Black. Class finished twenty minutes ago and I believe you are later for an appointment with Dr Akai."

Crane nodded, packed up his belongings and almost scurried out the door.

Rishi smiled. That one would be fun to teach.

**(space)**

Ten minutes later, Crane rapped on the Doctor's door.

"Come."

Opening the door, Crane took in the four figures in the room and felt his stomach drop.

Dr Akai was sitting at his desk and half-turned towards the door, the sunset behind him and his tome and notepad before him.

Standing by the wall and at attention were two adult male bat chimera wearing the Northern Clans' dark blue, black, silver and the warriors' royal purple.

But what really shot his mental equilibrium to pieces was the fire-eyed female warrior lounging in the chair by Akai's desk, waist-length thick, wavy black hair waving around her leather-clad form and _smirking_ at him.

'_Is that-?'_

'_Ya-ha.' _Kuronue sounded just as flabbergasted as Crane felt.

Kurai, Ruling Lady of the Northern Bat Chimera Clans, re-known psychotic amazon warbitch from the Deepest, Darkest Pits of Hell, oldest and only daughter of Kage and Kiko and Kuronue's massively overprotective Big Sissy, was giving Crane the same self-satisfied smirk a cat gave a previously occupied birdcage.

'_Fuck.' _Kuronue swore. '_She's never gonna let go of someone as cute as you.'_

_'DAGNAMMIT! How'd she find us?'_

* * *

Review now to receive your very own _'Molly-Dolly Special Edition Replica'(TM)._ Only available this chapter and made from real imaginary material. 


	11. Chapter 11

_**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything recognised as belonging to other people._

_Will answer questions next chapter. Busy._

* * *

"You're late, Mr Black."

Crane gave a little grimace. "I know. We were doing Trance in Divination and I went too far in. I only came out of it ten minutes ago."

This seemed to placate the doctor, who waved him into a seat between himself and the smirking Kurai.

"Lady Kurai, this is Crane Black, the boy I wrote to you about. Mr Black, this is Lady Kurai of the Northern Clans. I sent a missive last night asking for details about their heat cycle. For reasons she has yet to explain, her Ladyship decided to investigate for herself." He gave her vaguely reproving look, to which she gave back a cat-like smile.

"I came because the only hanyou born to my Clan in Europe was my only brother's progeny. I came to see if Mr Black was a descendant of the child." The warrioress smiled cheerfully. "His blood sings to mine, confirming blood relation to me." The two guards seated behind her shifted restlessly, appearing to have been unaware of the reason for their trip to the school before this moment.

'_Blood sings?'_

'_Blood is the memory's river. It identifies blood relations and stops inbreeding. Why do you think blood is used a bit in pretty much every genre of magic?'_

'_Ah.'_

Crane shifted. "Can we get to the point? I had to rush lunch; I do not want to miss dinner."

Kurai's lip twitched. "Then let's get the ball rolling." The bat woman settled back into her chair and steepled her fingers, regarding her brother's host with her canary-eating smirk. "If you were from any other clan, you would, as Akai-san believes, have a week to get ready for the heat cycle."

'_Heat cycle?'_ Kuronue sounded surprised.

'_Yeah. Found out yesterday, but you looked so pitiful whilst you were sleeping that I couldn't bring myself to brutally murder you.'_

Kuronue made a strangled sound.

Kurai continued. "But our heat cycles are fast and violent, but thankfully occurring only once a year at the same time. It takes three days preparation as opposed to the two weeks of others." She gave him a small, apologetic smile of sympathy. "You probably have a few hours, three at most. It'll last three days, during which you will experience hot and cold flashes, restlessness and an extreme desire for sexual contact that will shoot any inhibitions you have to hell, making you willing to accept pretty much anyone." Kurai turned to Dr Akai, who had been studiously writing notes. "You'll need an enclosed room with decent ventilation, power absorption wards, a fixed bed and a means by which to keep him strapped down. If the pheromones don't bring someone to him, he'll do everything he can to find someone. I'll stay with him since I won't be affected by the pheromones because we share blood."

The four adults turned to see Crane's reaction. His face was blank but inside he was chasing Kuronue around with a serrated longsword, swearing worse than a gutter brat.

After a minute or so, he blinked slowly. "I guess it would be bad if I went to dinner right now." Kurai nodded, lip twitching. "Then can I have dinner brought to me? And I'll have to get Luna to look after Neko-Chan."

Akai nodded absently. "We have a quarantine room he can use."

'_Ask about your classes.'_

Crane complied.

Akai shrugged. "I'll go speak to Principle Sesshoumaru about it."

(**space)**

An hour later, Crane was tied with his hands over his head and feet tied to the bedposts of a hospital bed in a small white room with one window overlooking a lake. He wore a tank top and khaki shorts, his hair in a braid and coiled beside his head. It was estimated the heat cycle would start within ten or twenty minutes, so only Kurai was in the room; the first time they had been alone together.

"So? How'd it work out?"

Crane, who had be lying with his eyes closed, opened on eye to glance at her before closing it again. "Not as well as you thought. I, as a person, had already been born by the time Kuronue died. There was an incident that should have killed me, he had just died and so he helped me and we merged. He's been dormant for the last thirteen year, but woke up after Christmas sometime. Haven't been able to shut him up since." He groused.

"So he pretty much stuffed up and got Possession instead of Occupation of an unborn brat."

"Yup."

"So what does this mean?"

"When I die, Kuronue and I will move onto a new body. We are too deeply merged to ever be able to survive being separated."

"So does that mean that you have his memories and experiences?"

"A lot of them. And he gives me more when he thinks I need them."

"Oh, good. This means I won't have to find someone else to channel all my maternal instincts towards."

'_DAMMIT!'_ came from both males.

"Does that mean I can call you Sissy?" Crane asked slyly, deciding to make the best of a useless situation.

Kurai shrugged. "Okay."

Crane shifted on the bed. "I think I know where Youko is."

The demoness settled back. "So the subliminal messages worked, huh?"

Crane shifted again, starting to become warm. "Apparently. He's a green-eyed redhead by the name of Minamino Suichi and lives in Japan. His mother is in hospital, probably a terminal illness. I--Unn!"

Kurai was openly amused as the heat came into full swing, distracting the poor thing from his train of thought.

Her smile widened.

He was just so cute! She was never gonna let go of him.

And she was gonna find this 'Minamino Suichi' for him if it killed her.

**(space)**

Crane had come out of his cycle on the third night with only vague recollections of what had happened during the heat. He was very sore, tired and stiff, his voice rough and needing to use the bathroom very badly.

He'd also missed three of his classes and, as such, was going to have to study hard for the test on the first.

Kurai had left, taking with her several two-way portkeys to Grimmauld Place in case something came up and so they could meet up for their lunch meeting next week.

After taking a shower in the medical wing and changing clothes (the clothes he was wearing taken by Dr Akai to be stripped of the pheromones and cleaned. Akai would keep the pheromones and try to come up with something to counter it) he wandered back to his room to sleep, deciding to pick up Neko-Chan tomorrow.

* * *

**Pleez review.**


	12. Chapter 12

**_Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognised as belonging to someone else._**

**I LIVE!!!**

My Muse, Neko-chan, decided to go sleep somewhere out of the way for a while (I eventually found him amidst the clutter under my bed), but I'm back now. The next chapter of Hidden Behind My White Mask will be out soon and you may wanna check out Fox Priest.

Notes to the Reviewers:

Kurama will be the only one in his body, to those who were wondering. I just thought that would make things interesting and...complicated (smirks).

Speaking of Fox-Boy, he will be mentioned soon but won't appear for several chapters.

It won't be a spell on Lily, per say, more like influencing.

I've also had a few mentions about Luna and Blaise. They are only applying for Three Towers. Harry wasz the only one to receive an invite as a child.

'God-modeing'. Heh. Like that one.

Shori, you shall find out about soon... Eventually.

With the making of Kurai, I was, beleive it or not, basing her personality loosely on Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo, someone else who will be appearing later. Argh, the carnage they'll do.

71 Reviews! Only one less than chappy 10. W00T!

* * *

Crane had always preferred exams to assignments. It had to do with only spending an hour or two on it before moving on, as opposed to the week upon agonising week it took to do a good essay or report or whatever else it was for the assignment. 

He was thankful, though, that Principle Sesshoumaru (whom Kuronue apparently knew_ ('CHIBI-FLUFFY-CHAN!')_) had given him a list of specific things to study for the classes he missed. Even he would have trouble going through three classes worth of material in two days. He thought he had the list of effects of certain spells for Battle Magic down, Transfiguration he could pull off if he put his mind to it and Politics and Economy had always been his forte.

Blaise and the redhaired girl (Marina? Morina? Morvina?) had looked surprised when he turned up for breakfast after being away for three days, but Luna had greeted him as if he hadn't been gone at all. After that, Klocia had turned up in short order, followed by another person with raven hair in a braid to his ankles, eyes forest green around the outer iris and grass green around the pupil, and looked like he could be Crane's brother. Crane recognised him from Runes. His name was Calder; no last name, and, as far as the wizard could tell, a sidhe.

Crane only had one class that day; Intermediate Potions. He was looking forward to it.

Crane had heard…_things_ about this Potions Master. Not perverted or evil or anything like that; merely incredibly immature, though grounded in reality, a certifiable genius and very smug about it and, for some reason, reminded Crane greatly of Crookshanks. The teacher's name was Washu; she had long spiky pink hair, green eyes and was a good half-head shorter than Crane. She also insisted that she be referred to as Washu-_chan_.

He rather liked Washu as a person, though he didn't particularly like her as a teacher. As soon as class started, the two instantly began butting heads. They ended up ignoring one another eventually, to the relief of the class and Crane's poor, unfortunate partner, once again that Pierre What's-'s-Name.

Despite his dislike of every Potions Teacher he'd ever had (including the tutor he'd attended as a child), Crane enjoyed Potion making. It was just like cooking.

This didn't stop him being first out of the room when class ended, though.

Not bothering to drop his books off at his dorm, the little dark-haired boy made a direct line for the dining room, the sidhe, Calder, a few steps behind him and Klocia pacing along behind him, an oddly predatory little smirk on her face.

He sat in _his_ spot at _his_ table and picked up the menu, not really caring that Calder and Klocia sat down and also made to order.

Crane was just trying to decide between the chocolate mousse and cookies 'n' cream ice-cream and the White Chocolate M&Ms Cheesecake for dessert when Blaise and Morvina (Was that her name? He thought it was.) bustled Luna and a small, slender boy into the room and towards the table, looking strained and tense. He chose the cheesecake and set down the menu, clasped his hands while waiting expectantly for an explanation.

When the four were seated, Crane raised his eyebrow inquiringly at Blaise.

"Luna almost started a cross species war. We can expect a confrontation sometime soon. I'll point them out when they get here." Blaise was seated so he could keep an eye on the door. Neither Blaise nor Morvina looked happy.

Luna was her usual dreamy self, smiling vaguely off into space.

The two fey were studiously pretending to ignore what was being said around them.

The boy had yet to raise his head from his view of his lap.

The wizard reached out and took the boy's chin, raising it so he could see his face. The boy glared; Crane raised an eyebrow and removed his hand before it was bitten. "Now what's your name?"

The boy blinked his big turquoise eyes, his short ash-white hair waving haphazardly around his pale face. He didn't appear to understand.

"He doesn't speak English," Luna told him absently. "But I think he speaks a type of Japanese."

The darker boy turned back to the boy and repeated his question in a generic medium of Japanese Kuronue had picked up during his time with the Inu-no-Taisho and used when addressing some of the older Ningenkai youkai.

The boy jumped, obviously startled, but quickly he recovered and answered the darker boy. "Hitsugaya Toushiro. And you?"

"I'm Crane Black, or Black Crane in the Japanese style of introduction. Are you here for the entrance exams?"

The boy blinked. "Entrance exams? I'm not even sure where I am."

The rest of the table was watching the exchange curiously; Crane ignored them.

"This is Three Towers Institute of Sorcery, probably the most elite magic school in the three worlds. We-" He gestured to the students of many races and schools filling up the dining room, "- are here at the school for a cram session week. At the end of the week, we will sit an exam which will last six hours with a one hour break in the middle. When we enter, we will pick up an envelope for each of the classes we are attempting to enter into. Each envelope contains a test with twenty multiple-answer questions, five short-answer questions and one essay question with a minimum of 250 words. Competition is high to be accepted here, especially because of the war over in Europe."

The look on the boy's face was enough to tell Crane Toushiro had suffered a brain overload.

Crane smiled cheerfully. "Don't worry. You'll get the hang of it."

"They're here."

Crane followed Blaise's line of sight and growled.

It was the pervert who had hit on him in Flourish and Blott's a while back. Looked like he'd be spending the rest of the afternoon on the doll he'd put aside.

Revenge was something Crane excelled at, after all.

**(SPACE)**

Not having any more classes that day, Crane _had_ returned to his room to continue working on his doll, but had become distracted by a dull gleam beside the shrunken trunk.

Sitting back on his bed, he began turning the object over in his hands, the tarnished silver links of the chain tinkling against his wrists.

It was a dull and old silver locket the size of the average human's palm. Oval in shape, the back was smooth and marked by years of wear. The front, however, was a pair of folded bat wings that opened outwards to reveal various small cogs that began turning when opened, producing a tinkling, simplified version of Carol Of The Bells.

Kuronue had had it made for Youko by an old friend of his, a relatively young kitsune named Shippo whom he had met while checking on Taisho's whelps. He remembered how thrilled the fox had been with it, turning it over and over in his hands for hours afterwards, listening to the tune and snuggling into the crook of Kuronue's shoulder, purring like a happy cat.

The sex that night had been phenomenal.

Crane snuggled into his pillow and went to sleep listening to the locket, Neko-Chan curled up against his back.

**(SPACE)**

Bright and early the next morning, Crane changed into his white polo shirt and black shorts and plaited his hair into two plaits which he then coiled into two loops behind his ears.

Crane had…_heard_ _things_ about PE from muggleborns.

Entering the dinning room, the little demon host almost rolled his eyes when he saw Klocia and Morvina's long loose hair and Calder's long braid. He was glad he'd brought extra hair-ties.

(**SPACE)**

Since Physical Education was mandatory, all the students in sixth-year were required to attend at the same time.

The teacher was…_horrifying._

The teacher's name was Maito Gai.

The teacher's assistant was…_appallingly horrifying._

The teacher's assistant's name was Rock Lee.

Together, they were both clad in a horrific bright green full-body spandex suit apiece, complete with orange leg warmers, sparkling black eyes and twin chrome dome black bowl-cuts.

Twenty-five minutes into PE, Crane already hated that class; and not just because of the Terrifying Two.

He was on his third lap of the indoor oval and, while he was faring better than the other wizardborns and many of the other races, he was hot, sweaty, his lungs hurt and his feet wanted to fall off.

It was a big oval and even Kuronue was making sympathetic noises.

"YOSH! Embrace the power of YOUTH, young ones, and you shall succeed!"

Crane _snarled_ at the despicable smaller green monster as it ran past him, full tilt, on its twelfth lap of the oval. Other students had similar reactions.

The use of vengeance dolls on the duo would be lost on them since they were more annoying than both Molly Dolly and Tatter Rags, Rag'N'Bones would probably run away from them and Padfoot wouldn't be finished for a week or so yet.

"YOSH! Keep running my Youthful students!"

Crane stared hatefully at the back of Gai.

He'd get back at the green monstrosities if it was the last thing he ever did.

* * *

Honestly, I had no idea what I was thinking when I put these two in, other than it cracked me up and gave Crane a reason to be pissy next chapter. 

Pleez review. Cheers to the new year!


	13. Chapter 13

**_Disclaimer: I own nothing recognised as belonging to someone else._**

**_Author is currently curled up in a dark corner, whimpering and growing mushrooms._**

**This chapter came out kicking and screaming. It just didn't want to be written.**

**I'm glad you all enjoyed Gai and Lee, not to mention Washu.**

**Yes, Sesshoumaru is the Daiyoukai from Inuyasha.**

**And Kurama is Youko trapped in a humen form. Apparently Kitsune can do that in a form of Possession called 'Avatarism'. Nifty little tidbit, that. However, there are side-effects. For more information, look up Foxtrot's site on Kitsune. You can find it on Google.**

Upon the end of Physical Education class, which, after the laps, involved the Beep Test (another running exercise), weights and Dodge Ball, Crane went straight to his room, grabbed his clothes and several jars and went to the dorm bathroom to shower.

Not bothering to wet his hair, Crane washed the sweat and grime from his skin and left the showers to got to where he had left his clothes on the bench in the middle of the bathroom in nothing but a towel, blatantly ignoring the ogling of several of the other males in his PE class who had come to shower.

Drying himself off, the dark boy rubbed in muscle-strengthening and repairing ointments Kuronue had made it necessary for him to procure, as well as horse liniment snitched from the Potter Pegasus stables to keep his muscles warm as well as from stiffening up for the Weapons and Tactics class that afternoon.

Once sure he had the liniment in all the important places, Crane put on the brown leather pants and vest that hugged his body, and padded back to his room, barefoot, totally unaware of the chaos he left in his wake, not to mention the trauma many of the straight males received in the moments following.

**(space)**

'_So…We have weapons next, right?'_

'_Yeah…'_

'_You remember how to use the Kusari Gama?'_

'_Yep.'_

'_Then we're set.' _Kuronue murmured. '_Remember to get properly hydrated, eat slow-release energy foods and, for the love of Youko's cute fluffy tail, remember to use the bathroom before class.'_

Crane smirked to himself. '_Speaking from experience?'_

The bat gave the impression of glaring. '_Yes. We went on a heist once and about a third of the way into the plan, I had to go to the bathroom real bad. I think my kidneys almost burst since I had to hold it in until we got back to the den three hours later.'_

'_Ouch.' _Crane murmured in sympathy as he wandered in to the dining room.

As he approached his table, Crane almost smirked at the dishevelled appearance of Blaise and Morvina, the tentative stretching of Calder and Klocia slumped over the table.

Removing the jar of liniment from the small bag at his waist, he handed it to Calder, who accepted it gratefully, and sat down in his usual chair with his back to a corner.

"So," He spoke almost cheerfully, earning him nasty looks from Blaise and Morvina, "Does anyone else have Weapons and Tactics this afternoon?"

Calder nodded, rubbing liniment into his legs, and Klocia grunted assent, not bothering to look up.

"No, thank Circe." Blaise groaned. "Free period. I'm going to shower and nap."

"Oohhh. Sounds nice." Morvina moaned, leaning against her friend.

Crane 'hmm'ed cheerfully, digging into his steak and salad. "Make sure you stretch before napping or you'll be stiff when you get up."

There were a couple of groans and whimpers from the other four, but still Crane spared a slightly tired smile for Luna and Toushiro, who was baring the bemused and slightly frightened appearance of someone who had been with Luna for extended periods of time.

**(SPACE)**

W&T was, surprisingly, taught by not one, but two teachers; Tenten Akimori herself, and a rather lazy young man called Shikamaru Nara.

It had started off as a basic lecture in Tactics by Nara-sensei, then a test to see how good each student was with their chosen weapon/s in a light spar with Akimori-sensei.

While Crane's spar lasted longer then most of the other tests, he ended up out of breath and designated into the 'Advanced' class with Calder, who wielded a paired set of shortsword and parrying knife, while Klocia looked genuinely irritated to be placed into the 'Intermediate' class with her Lochaber axe.

The small brunette was maliciously pleased when the bastard who hit on him and bullied Toushiro and Luna was placed in the Advanced class with the rest of his little group of friends.

Most of the second half of the lesson was spent explaining the strengths and weakness of the most common close, middle and ranged weapons. In the finishing twenty minutes, students were put into groups of four according to what level they had been put at and given a situation which had to be dealt with, utilising the abilities of all four teammates.

Crane, Calder and a pair of what Crane felt were part-time fangirls were put together. Crane, as the ranged and close combat fighter, was designated to be the support combatant, while one of the girls, a brunette with a pair of Sai, was close range specialist who would engage the target. Calder and the blond with the fuuma shuriken would come in form the back while Crane watched everyone's backs.

The plans were handed in and Crane left the Dojo, snagging a trio of hairs from a certain bastard, whose name turned out to be Rory Kiln, on the way out.

Padfoot was so close to completion the Boy-Who-Kicked-Ass was almost giddy.

This chapter is so short and crappy I won't be traumatised if I don't get many reviews. It was painful to get past this Cram school bit as it went longer than expected. I'm just gonna jump the exam with only passing mention and go into the Harry and Gary scenes next chapter.

Toodles.


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I own nothing recognised as belonging to someone else.**

I decided to redeem Gary in this chapter. It just meshed with the sharp pointy story I;m running with (hope I don't slipand fall on it.

The reason I haven't updated lately is because I've had really bad depression that has me on medication and counselling. It_is_not_funny. Or fun. I've recently gotten a new job after being fired from my old one (did NOT help my depression) and, when I was finally up to writing again, Word stopped working.

Hopefully I'm back for good and I strongly suggest Pet Shop of Horrors for manga readers. It isn't really funny, more horror, tragedy and a little romance.

* * *

The exams had gone well, Crane supposed. Once he had read the material and cast the spells, he was reasonably sure he would pass his tests. He'd had a little difficulty with the classes he had missed.

His return 'home', however, had not been so great. Aside from his father having not noticed him gone for a week, the weasel and the beaver had gotten up in his face as soon as he was forcibly ejected from the Floo.

He could still hear Ronald's snide comments about not caring about Gary and being selfish while Hermione double-teamed with demands to know where he'd been, what he'd done, who he'd spoken too and how dare he abandon Gary in his hour of need; never mind that the two of them had commandeered his twin's time and campaigned all through Diagon Alley that 'Harry' was going dark.

Throughout the verbal lashing, he hadn't done anything but fall into his 'girly' hand-on-hip stance and stare blankly at the stylized leaf-patterned wallpaper whilst surreptitiously watching Gary's reactions to how his friends were treating his brother. His _Twin_.

Seeing the emotions flash over his brother's face, Crane couldn't help but feel that he was beginning to realise what had friends were really like. If the uneasiness and surprise were any indicator, they mightn't be such close friends for much longer.

Crane supposed that he really shouldn't have been surprised when Gary entered his room late that night.

*****

He'd been reading a muggle forensics/mystery novel in bed, the grandfather clock in the hall having just finished toning two o'clock in the morning, when a knock had sounded on the now seldom-used door connecting his room to Gary's.

Surprised, Crane had blinked at the door across the room for a moment before climbing out of bed and putting his novel on the bedside table.

Padding across the carpet, he opened the door.

Standing in the darkness, Gary fidgeted.

Sighing, Crane stepped back and let his brother in before closing and locking the door.

As the twins had done when they were little, they both climbed into the king-sized bed to avoid the chilly night air before they began their conversation.

The silence was awkward for a few minutes before Gary spoke softly.

"Sorry how Ron and 'Mione spoke to you earlier. I-"

"Stop." Gary stopped. "You shouldn't have to apologize for their behaviour. Besides, they weren't acting any different than they always have."

Gary took in a sharp breath at Crane's mild tone, not sure if the disappointment was really there or not.

Despite what people thought, when it really came down to it, Harry's opinion of him carried even more weight than anyone else's, even Dumbledore's. They were twins, after all; two parts of the same whole and, despite the way Gary acted, he knew, _beyond a shadow of a doubt_, that Harry was the only one who had never and would never use him for personal gain or actively hurt him.

"The only time they don't act like that is when you're actually close enough to hear what they're saying." Crane continued, pretending not to notice how Gary curled up into himself against his side.

Gary's bright green eyes, a few shades darker than his twin's, peered at his brother sadly as the infinitesimally older boy reached over to turn off the bedside lamp.

"...Do they really?"

Crane wouldn't look at his brother. "Yes."

Gary cringed. Many people would have called Harry a liar for refusing to look at him when the older twin answered, citing guilt for lying. Those people did not know Harry. Harry's refusal to look at his brother when answering was because he was aware of just how painful it was for Gary to hear, and he felt regret for the pain he was causing by telling the truth.

The two boys lay quietly in the dark for a while before Crane spoke.

"I won't be returning to Hogwarts this year. I've been accepted into another school out of the country and out of the way."

Gary started. "Wha...? But..."

Crane sighed and grabbed Gary's hand under the blankets to give comfort.

"If you don't have anything pressing tomorrow, I'll take you to a pet shop I've heard about that sells exotic and dangerous pets. And so long as you follow the exact wording of the contracts, you should have a loyal companion for life."

*****

Crane led his brother confidently through China Town in some American city Gary hadn't bothered to remember, a carry-box full of baked goods in the elder twin's left hand and the odd purple cat wrapped around his shoulders.

Even Gary had to admit that his brother made a sophisticated and exotic sight as he walked past the red and black architecture of Chinatown, looking for all the world like he belonged there. Leather pants, a tight black tank top, leather boots and leather arm cuffs, his hair apparently loose but actually tied off at the bottom so his cat could hide in it.

Gary suddenly felt like the ugly, unwanted twin he'd tried very hard as a child for Harry not to feel like.

The now not-so-identical twins stopped in front of a building with a sign saying 'Count D's Pet Shop' above it.

Suddenly feeling unsure, Gary followed Harry down the stairs.

*****

Crane was a little hesitant about bringing his brother to this place, but he knew that Gary was well-versed in contracts and would honour any contract he willingly signed.

'_You should've just gotten the brat a pet snake.'_ Kuronue grumbled.

Crane rolled his eyes as he turned the doorhandle and entered the shop. '_But would he become as devoted and dependant on it if he couldn't identify it with a person rather than just an animal?'_

Kuronue sighed and settled back. He couldn't say he liked his host's brother but he supposed it was similar to the relationship Kurai had with her son, Kunai.

He still didn't like it.

Crane quite liked the room, and the incense was quite pleasant.

"Welcome. How may I be of service today? Our store offers a wide range of animals from small cats and dogs to birds, insects and even amphibians."

Crane could practically feel Gary hide behind him as the androgynous male in a red and gold cheongsam detached himself from the shadows.

Crane peered at the male for a moment, almost certain that the male was completely nonhuman, but he couldn't tell the species. He shrugged and held out the carry-box.

"I come bearing baked treats."

The box was gone from his hands before he could blink and the male was cooing over the open box at the small coffee table.

"You are so kind!" The male Crane assumed to be Count D swooned. "They smell delicious!"

"Thank you." Crane smiled and moved closer, taking special note of the tanuki, tenko and totetsu watching warily from the shadows. "It's good to hear when one's efforts are appreciated."

D gave the young customer a startled glance. "You made these, young sir?"

Crane nodded. "Baking is both a hobby of mine and a means of releasing stress. But more along to the reason my brother and I are here, is because my brother needs a pet who can be both confidant and protector to him."

There was a sudden cold, calculating light in the male's mismatch gold and violet eyes by the time Crane finished his sentence.

Gary appeared to be trying to shrink into his shadow.

"Oh?" D murmured. "And here I had the perfect pet in mind for you. Are you sure...?"

Crane shook his head with a rueful smile. "I thank you. But no. I do not believe Neko-Chan would tolerate another pet having claim on me. He barely tolerates Hedwig as it is." He turned his head slightly and raised his right hand to pet the small feline head that popped out of its hiding place in his hair at its name. "Would you, love?"

At the same time as the small purple cat let out a whistling trill, the tanuki, tenko and totesu suddenly scrambled to their feet and bolted into a back room, causing a momentary pile-up in the doorway as they fled in terror from the alpha bull behemoth.

The Chinese male stared, open-mouthed, at what appeared to the rest of the world as a small purple cat with big black eyes rubbing itself affectionately against the attractive, black-haired youth's cheek and hand, but appeared to him as a lithe boy-child with long slinky purple hair, darkly-tanned skin, huge black tilted eyes and three horns (two large and shaped like a bulls and a small stubby horn on the forehead), hanging around the youth's shoulders and nuzzling smugly and possessively against the youth's cheek.

Whilst staring at D with a threat in his void-like black gaze.

D composed himself quickly. "I suppose not." He agreed shakily, still watching the demonic beast warily. T-Chan was one thing, but having an _alpha behemoth, _especially one so obviously enamoured by a_ human,_ in his shop for any period of time, obviously, as Detective Orcot would say, scared him shitless.

Desperate to get as far from the overly-possessive behemoth as possible and keep it that way, he turned a professional smile to the boy who, now that he was paying attention, was probably the other boy's twin.

"Is there anything in particular you were looking for?"

"Ahh..." The boy glanced at his brother helplessly.

Crane rolled his eyes at his brother's uncertainty. "What have you in the way of reptiles? Both my brother and I are Parselmouths, which means we can speak the snake language. I've actually spoken to some of the older lizards and a dragon with Parseltongue before so I would assume most reptiles would be able to understand us when we speak thus."

D didn't even think about it. "I have just the thing. She has been looking for a companion for some time now. This way please."

D led the two through a door covered by a curtain and down a corridor with many doors until they reached one with black roses embossed on it.

The room was dark and warm with Romanic furniture, small water fountains and several large potted plants. In one of the chairs sat a beautiful, pale woman with literally wine-red/violet hair bound into an elaborate pig-tail hairstyle with strings of pearls to hang down to where her knees would be. She wore an expensive, heavy dark purple gown in the Erte style, studded and lined in patterns of precious gems, delicate, tasteful jewellery and a simple eye mask the same shade as her gown. For all her jewels, the woman was somehow still elegant and tastefully dressed.

Jewels. Reptile. Eye mask. Roman features. It clicked in Crane's head without Kuronue's assistance.

Crane glanced at Gary, who appeared totally enamoured by the woman to the exclusion of all else, to D who was watching the pair of them for approval.

"A Gorgon?" Crane asked the Count quietly.

D smiled, nodding assent.

-_**Ssshe'sss beautiful...- **_Gary spoke, seemingly unaware he'd spoken out loud in the snake tongue.

The Gorgon jerked up sharply from her reclining position, frantically swaying her head back and forth as if looking for something, but really scenting the air.

_**-Massster? Are you here, Massster? Have you come for me at lassst?-**_

Over the sibilant hissing came a frantic, hopeful woman's voice. Crane put his hand against Gary's back, pushing him towards the hopeful Gorgon.

Hearing Gary's footsteps getting closer, the Gorgon reached out her arms towards him.

The young wizard caught one of her fluttering, pale hands in both of his own, knelt down before the chair and pressed it to his face and lips, unmindful of the long shape nails varnished plum against his skin. Her other hand came down to touch, to card through his hair.

Gary pulled his face back just enough to look up at her. _**–Will you come with me? Be my companion? My confidant? My friend?-**_

The look on the Gorgon's face was beautiful, ready to cry for happiness. _**–Yesss. Yesss. That isss what I wissshhh. Anything you want, Massster. Only yoursss. Only you.-**_

She threw herself out of the chair into Gary's arms, revealing her long white-scaled tail and her own arms thrown around his neck, hiss-sobbing in happiness.

Crane, strongly touched by the beginnings of true love between his twin and his new Gorgon love, turned to the Count, who looked surprised and pleased at the matched pair, whilst trying to squash down his longing for a certain silver fox.

"I believe now would be a good time to get the contract."

Count D nodded silently and quietly slipped out retrieve the requested document.

* * *

Yes, I am aware that Medusa was called a Basilisk in the manga (and anime) of Pet Shop of Horrors, she was sold to Robin Hendrix in the second chapter and so-on so-forth. I liked her and I actually cried that chapter so I gave her a second chance with Gary.

Feel free to review me and thank you for holding on patiently for the next update.

...or impatiently. Whichever works for you, I guess.


	15. Chapter 15

**_Disclaimer:_** I do not own anything recognised as belonging to other people.

88 reviews. I love you people. -swoons-

Neko-chan is willing to play with me again and my meds have been changed so I'm writing again.

I went though and read all the reviews for the last chapter again and was once again overwhelmed by the support of my story-fans. Thank you.

No reviews were left unread.

* * *

Crane padded down the hallway of Grimmauld Place later that evening, having left Gary and Medusa, his newly named Gorgon companion, coiled up in front of the living room fireplace, Gary feeding her fresh fruit and sharing things about themselves.

Considering what she was, Crane personally thought the three clauses in the contract were quite reasonable. Fresh fruit and live prey were well within Gary's ability to provide for, there wasn't a wizard or witch worth their wand that didn't know what would happen if her blindfold came off and keeping her in a fully furnished enlarged trunk compartment was a good way for no one but the twins to know she was even there. Still, Crane made a mental note to have the trunk warded against intrusion before the school year started.

Wandering into the entryway, the boy settled down into one of the entryway chairs, idly casting cleaning and repairing charms on the wallpaper and cobwebs that had appeared while the house was empty while he waited for Kurai to arrive.

'_How much longer?'_ Kuronue murmured, awake, bored and vocal.

Green eyes flicked to the ancient grandfather clock with n ugly, leering gargoyle on top of it.

'_About thirty seconds.'_

Crane stood and stretched, idly wondering how Kurai was going to act towards him.

True to timing, the portkey dumped Kurai in the centre of the room.

The tall woman, at least six and a half feet tall, idly glanced around the room much as Crane had earlier before her gaze locked onto the youth.

She grinned.

(**space)**

Crane mulled over the information Kurai had given him.

Youko Kurama, now known as Shuichi Minamino, was thirteen years old, lived in Japan, had a single mother named Shiori who was terminally ill, his father had died in a car crash when he was a toddler and he was currently top of his year at his middle school.

And he had a vicious, ravenous pack of fangirls (and a few boys) who had started a cult dedicated to him.

Crane, not Kuronue, was strongly tempted to go to Japan for the sole purpose of tattooing 'Property of Kuronue' on the fox's arse (Kuronue was equal parts amused and awed by this level of possessive emotion directed to someone his baby bat hadn't even met yet).

And yes, Crane was aware he had no technical claim on Youko, hence signing 'Kuronue'.

'_Seriously Crane, I'll admit to being a bit possessive at times, but you just took the whole thing to a new level.'_ Kuronue was definitely amused by this turn of events and by the newly dubbed Shuichi's Cult.

Green eyes warily tracked Kurai's jaunt around the kitchen, sucking a bloodpop and poking anything she didn't recognise with a taloned finger for a time before inquiring as to what it was and what it did.

'_I think it's one of those rare traits I inherited from my father. Remember those stories Sirus used to tell us about how possessive James was of Mother even before she agreed to go out with him?'_ Crane watched warily as Kurai poked the sandwich press, humming a drinking song under her breath.

'_Yeah,'_ The human's attention zeroed in on the odd inflections of his other's tone. '_That always kinda struck me as odd. Lily loathed James with a deep passion for what he used to do to Snape. Kinda makes you wonder if someone slipped Lily a love potion.'_

'_Excuse me?'_ That was not what Crane was expecting. He found himself startlingly homicidal at the thought.

Kuronue continued on, 'not noticing' the increasingly homicidal thoughts that were racing though his hosts' mind like New Year's fireworks. '_I mean, her perception of James took a compete 180 in the course of like, one, maybe two, months despite six years of feuding. That doesn't happen without outside assistance. And there are love potions where an item can be soaked in the potion and as long as the item is in regular contact with the target, the potion will be affective. If the dosage is increased gradually, no one would be the wiser.'_

Crane twitched. "Sissy?"

Kurai perked up and turned to look at her newly adopted brother from where she was studying a sweating Kreature. "Yes, Precious?"

"Can I trust you to not destroy anything while I go attend to an important errand that just occurred to me?"

Kurai regarded her bubsy for a moment, taking in the almost throbbing vein in his temple and the fixed smile/grimace on his face...

...And wondered if he'd let her help hide the body of whatever a-hole had pissed him off.

"Go for it." She turned her attention to the green powder above the fireplace.

Crane nodded and stood, pausing at the living room door to let Gary know he had a guest over so as to lock the door from the inside, before making a line for the library.

**(space)**

Less than an hour later, Crane had the large pool-like bathtub in a backroom of the potions lab full of a clear, purified oil used as a base for cleansing.

He hadn't been able to find an antidote for all love potions so he had set about making his own.

On the worktable beside the chopping board, knives and cauldron was an old book which had translated the uses for plants the Celtic druids worked with. Say what you want about druids, but they knew their way around plants and potions.

Aloe oil was tipped into the bath by the gallon with bloodroot stems, bayberry wood, boneset petals, butterfly weed leaves, ground cattail reeds, cedar oil, clover oil, dogwood chips, eucalyptus oil, dried eyebright flowers, shredded ginseng root, boiled goldseal leaves, whole hibiscus flowers, crushed juniper berries, a couple of larch pines, lotuses floating on the surface, mandrake splinters, unripe mistletoe berries collected from a plant growing on an oak at midnight on a full moon, myrrh oil, a handful of wormwood powder and topped off with a bucket of shredded parsley to stabilize the potion.

Call him overkill, but all the plants used were for healing, protection, detection, dispelling or cleansing.

Nodding to himself, he started the fire under the bath to heat the oil to bathing temperatures.

"Kreature."

The shrivelled house elf popped into the room and swooned, actually appearing to grow a little younger and healthier just from the fumes.

"Master callses us?" The elf stammered, still swooning, yellow eyes clearing and pupils dilating.

"Go to my mother, Lily Potter, and tell her that I want her help with a project as soon as possible."

Kreature bowed woozily and popped out.

Crane eyed the twitching house elf finger on the floor.

He didn't know house elves could splitch.

'_You really don't like love potions, do you?'_ Kuronue murmured, speaking for the first time since he'd pointed out the possibility of a potion being used on his mother.

'_It offends me that someone on the 'Light' side could do something like that to someone like my mother.'_ Crane grumbled. '_Which reminds me. We should dump Gary in it while he's here.'_

"Winky."

The little female house elf Sirius had bonded to the family before his death appeared and blinked, shivering slightly.

"Yes Master?"

"Go up to the hall outside the living room and knock on the door. Tell Gary wether he answers or not that I want him down in the potions lab immediately. If he doesn't know where it is, lead him down. Do not enter the room."

"Yes Master." Winky popped away.

Crane sighed and leant over the tub, folding his arms on the edge.

"That's a pretty powerful potion you got there."

Crane tilted his head slightly so he could see Kurai as she leant against the doorjam..

"I could smell the fumes from all the way up on the first floor. What's it do?" She inquired and as wandered up to look into the oil-shined pool.

"It's supposed to cleanse the effects of potions and spells from a person, hence why Gary should be here soon."

Kurai blinked a moment. "Gary? Ah, your twin brother. I wouldn't mind meeting him."

"Hmm." Crane was relaxing just looking at the oil and assorted plant-parts as they swirled gently in the heat-streams. "He's already more than a little enamoured with a Gorgon. I love him dearly, but sometimes I wonder if he's salvageable." The youth's lip twitched. "Then he goes and pulls a stunt like this and I wonder why I ever doubted."

Kurai nodded and settled into a companionable silence with her brother's host.

"What's that smell?"

Crane's lips quirked at his twin's comment as he came through the door Kurai had left open. "A cleansing potion. Strip and get in."

"Huh?" Gary blushed to holy heaven.

And got kudos for only the slight widening of his eyes when he caught sight of Kurai's ears and wings.

"In the tub. I suspect you have spells and or potions affecting what and how you behave and think." Crane tilted his head slightly so he could see his brother. "Have I ever steered you wrong."

"No you haven't, but...ah..." Gary's eyes cut to Kurai, who was leering at him, well aware that her female presence was making him self-conscious.

"Sis. Out."

Kurai pouted. "I gotta be going anyway. Kunai's probably going berko looking for me. Poor dear's lost without me to hold his hand."

Crane and Kuronue sincerely doubted that.

"I'll be seeing you next week then." The demoness kissed his cheek and activated to portkey, leaving the two brothers alone in the room.

Crane looked at his brother, eyebrows raised.

A minute later, Gary slipped into the oil, closely followed by Crane.

When they dunked under the surface, neither came up for a long time.

But the oil boiled violently.

**(space)**

There had been a moment of searing agony, a long, echoing shriek and the vague notion of clinging to someone who felt _we_-_us-me-mine _and a larger, older presence who felt of rippling power and _me-you-other-mine._

Then peace and comfort and _clean._

Minds expanded and overlapped.

'_Who are you?'_

'_I am I.'_

'_But who are you?'_

'_I am that which is, that is myself. Who is here, there, beyond me here.'_

'_Huh?'_

'_There is no us, only I. We are one for now. I am Gareth-Crane-Kuronue. Power moves in threes.'_

'_There's a connection.'_

'_Everything is connected.'_

'_A Triumvirate of Power. A Sharing. Pathways of Communication. To never be alone again._

'_...You realise that we will probably be vaguely wondering who we are for months, right?'_

There was a moment of almost amused silence before the comfortable world was disturbed by movement and the feeling of large teeth and horns grasping and lifting filtered through the nerve endings of two bodies.

Awareness dawned of a burning pressure in two sets of lungs as the large form of a purple behemoth dragged Crane and Gary out of the warm tub and onto the cold stone floor where they proceeded to cough out their internal organs.

Looking up into Shyam's worried black eyes, all Crane could say was-

"Ow."

**(space)**

The pool practically glowed with white power now that Crane and Gary were out of it.

Speaking of Gary, Crane slid a glance at his brother, who was now his literal mirror image.

Gary's hair was the same length, silky soft texture and shade as Crane's. Both their ears had taken on a slight point, much like an elf's from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and their faces had shifted slightly and now more closely resembled a bat chimera youkai's. Their nails had become small talons and tattoo-like markings resembling folded bat-wings ran down their backs from shoulders to knees. Their eyes held a slight green glow in the shadows of their inky tresses.

Crane thought his twin was taking his status as no-longer-entirely-human quite well.

The two brothers sat on a worktable beside one another with Shyam lying in true form on the floor between them and the pool, deep in thought and still naked.

Kuronue was still and silent, watchful, inside Crane's mind, but now connected by a much lesser bond to Gary.

This was how Lily found the two several hours later, Crane's Three Towers acceptance letter in hand.

And yes, there was some identity and memory confusion for several months.

* * *

Reviews wanted.


	16. Chapter 16

_**Disclaimer:**__** I do not own anything recognised as belonging to someone else.**_

This chapter was agony. Aside fromthe writer's block and stuff going on,this chapter just didn't want to be written... Not sure I'm happy with it, but it will have to do.

Some more Folklore mythos in this one with a nod to L.'s Merry Gentry series, and some newly rekindled affection for RG Veda's Ashura and Yasha.

...And I am deeply sorry for the long wait to the 125 dedicated reviewers who hung around for this not-that-great chapter. Hopefully the next chapter will be better,because you deserve it.

* * *

A small part of Crane whimpered when Shyam lifted his mother from the potion.

Her hair had deepened from a dark red-ginger colour to a bloody red shot through with highlights of fire opal and ember orange, becoming smoother and with a consistent wave through the long, thick tresses. Once lightly freckled peach skin had taken on an even, spotless, pore-less, porcelain texture with her eye-lashes and eyebrows almost black against her face.

A calmer part was resignedly waiting for her to open her eyes, hoping against hope she had Seelie eyes...

Lily opened her eyes...

Kuronue laughed and Crane cursed. Gary glanced at his brother, having felt something from that third, currently unexplained, presence that was attached to Crane and now loosely linked to him.

There was light brown around Lily's pupil that flecked away into odd orange dots before becoming lime green streaked in white, though the edges were a very dark green that vined into slight triangles, giving the overall appearance that her eyes were tiny green sunflowers. The tricolour said Seelie, but the dark green and patterning said Unseelie.

Crane felt he was going to owe Calder a fair bit when he found their grandparents.

A small part of Crane was almost glad Lily's human surrogate parents were dead.

(**break)**

The Fey-Human Liaison Office was in the back of a quaint little cafe in London Suburbia.

Crane and Kuronue agreed it was done to make Wizards and Witches uncomfortable.

Crane led Gary and Lily to the bar but was wordlessly waved to an open door into the back by the small brown old man with four-jointed fingers at the bar.

The boy just wandered through without a thanks, not wanting to insult the fey.

There was a small sitting area just inside the door where the trio settled down to wait.

Crane and Gary had dressed identically for this meeting in black dress-pants, white cotton dress-shirt and black-patterned dark green vests. Crane had spent two hours tying both their hair into small, back-flowing braids and tied them up in high, mildly formal ponytails.

Both had quick-access to small steel knives tied to their thighs, but only Crane had garrottes and senbon carefully woven into his hair.

Lily was wearing a tasteful dark purple summer dress lightly embroidered with green vines around the hem, and a matching purse and strappy heels to go with it.

Neko-chan was perched in his customary perch around Crane's neck, watching everything with drowsy liquid eyes.

Crane had sent a small vial of blood and a small lock of Lily's hair to Calder two days previously, as soon as Lily's freak-out had been taken care of, with a request that he find out who was missing a girl-child who would be between thirty-four and thirty-six years old with mixed Seelie and Unseelie blood. Calder had gotten back to him two hours later with a time and place for a meeting with Lily's very anxious (and very scary from the sounds of it) father, an Ashura, who was once hailed the King of the Assyrian Pantheon of Gods, from what Crane could get out of mythology books.

Internet made references to a prophecy in a book about a God of Destruction, War and Fire, but he was pretty sure it was mostly, if not all, fiction.

There was a mild commotion down the hall and raised voices in a language that neither Crane nor Kuronue could identify aside from that it sounded vaguely like Cornish (and not the vegetable).

When the voices came to an abrupt, stony silence, a distinctly harried-looking Calder came down the hall and nodded to Crane.

"Who was arguing?" The oldest of the twins inquired as he stood. Read: 'Who else came and what do they want?'.

"Your mother is the daughter of Lord Ashura of the Unseelie Court and Lady Sirona of the Seelie Court. There was quite a commotion when it came out that Sirona was pregnant after more than a thousand years of being with Grannus, and even more so when she told the Grannus in the middle of a court function it was Lord Ashura's baby. There was nearly a war. Now, with Sirona still missing, presumed dead, Grannus is dragging her name through the mud by saying she lied to hurt him and your mother really is his child. With this dispute boiling, both Lord Ashura and Lord Grannus are here, along with both Queen Minerva and King Oberon and their attendants and guards."

That Calder didn't even think of not answering surprised the Black Lord for a moment while Kuronue pointed out that what he knew of fey indicated there were some instinctive subservience to those who inherited a 'Royal' Aura or earned a 'Leadership' Crest. The bat was leaning towards the former but assured that even if Crane had either, it didn't mean he had to make use of it.

Crane tilted his head slightly. "And you are here because you are familiar to me?"

Calder nodded. "And because I'm the one who brought you to their attention."

The two-souled youth tilted his head. "What do you think?"

The sidhe smirked. "If you're not related to Ashura, then I'll eat my sword."

Considering the size of Calder's sword, as seen in W&T class, that was saying something. And any innuendo was completely by accident on both their parts, though Calder's ears turned slightly red when he realised what he'd just said to someone he knew was more interested in boys.

Crane, Gary and Lily saw what Calder meant when they entered the small conference room soon after.

It was assumed by most wizards that the Potter Twins took after their father's family, and perhaps some of the Black family from their paternal grandmother, but it was now apparent that, while Lily probably took almost entirely from her mother, the twins took almost entirely from their maternal grandfather.

Lord Ashura's long, inky-black hair was the same wavy, silky consistency as the Twins', though not quite as thick, and they shared the same eye and eyebrow shape, high cheekbones, slim nose, slightly plumper lower lip and forehead, though their jaw was slightly softer. Then there were, of course, the pointed ears which the broad-jawed, auburn-haired, blue-eyed Grannus lacked.

It should also be noted that the twins also shared the same hands and slim body-shape as their grandfather while Grannus was broad-shouldered and thick-handed.

Comparing the two sidhe Lords was like comparing an elaborate orchid to a rose, both pretty but distinctly different in terms of beauty and simplicity.

Everyone in the room but Grannus knew without further investigation that Lily was, indeed, Ashura's daughter when her two children were place close enough to compare the similarities.

King Oberon, with his long amber-gold hair and warm brown and orange eyes, graciously bowed out and had his guards drag Grannus out with them, making it apparent that he really didn't care but had to put in token resistance for appearances.

Crane wished that he'd gotten Ashura's slit-pupiled warm amber eyes rather than what he considered to be a rather boring green.

Not deeming Ashura a threat when he and the tall tanned sidhe accompanying him approached, Crane absently shifted to the side to let them past to Lily while he regarded Queen Mab of the Unseelie Court.

Her hair fell elegantly around her small, waif-ish body in streams of silver so pale they were almost white, the odd hint of purple or blue shining through. Her eyes dominated her small angular face, large and the oddly indescribable colour you see when you look over the surface of water. The eyes were neither hard nor soft, neither warm nor cool, constantly shifting.

Something in Queen Mab's energy overflow said she was contented and a little amused. Though, Crane considered the pretty, colourful Guards and attendants arranged around her, she had every reason to be content.

Deeming the Fairy Queen 'Not-A-Current-Threat' and with a slight tug from Gary's connection, Crane turned his attention back to his family in time to receive the full force of Ashura's devastatingly beautiful smile, which set Kuronue off into flashbacks of Taisho.

It was at that point that Crane decided he liked his grandfather and would have no problems handing the protection of his mother and brother over to the likely very old former deity.

**(break)**

Crane and Kuronue were of the opinion that invading Youko's dreams was a bit stalkerish, but they couldn't help themselves.

Appearing as a single entity, they drew Youko into a memory of better times, when they were happy.

As the dream fadedinto semi-awareness, they crooned to Youko through the haze.

"_I never blamed you. Not once_."

And when Minamino Shuichi awoke to a cold, empty human bed, there was a black Tacca flower on his pillow.

* * *

Gah. Done.

Tacca – the Bat Flower. Quite pretty really.

That's it. Done. Crane's passed the baton and pretty much washed his hands of Britain's wizarding Clusterf-ck. It's Ashura's problem now.

End of Arc One.

Next: Three year time skip to after the last Tournament whose name escapes me at this time of 4:55am.

Will be continued next chapter.


	17. Chapter 17

_**Disclaimer:**__** I do not own anything recognised as belonging to someone else.**_

And so begins Part Two!

At some point in writing tis, I just went 'eff it' and decided to start things off during the Dark Tournament. Kurama is about sixteenish around the time of the DT, while Crane is a week or so shy of eighteen, has been attending Three Towers for two years (Seventh Year Hogwarts Time) and will be returning to Three Towers for another four years for University, which shares campus with the High School Three Towers.

Neko-chan is around and will pop up next chapter,but not in this one.

Wuv you all who read and reviewed (nicely). Seriously, there are some people out there who read the whole thing just so they can attempt to tear down a writer's self-esteem, yet not have the guts to sign it. Granted, they likely would have been booted off by now if they had, but it's the principle of the thing!

Anyway, thanks again and on with the story.

* * *

Crane had done little more than give Ashura a list of names of people who could have or, given the chance, would have kidnapped the pregnant mother of his child, a small folder of theories and what he had found or suspected in regards to the attempted control of his relatives and another list of contacts who might help with the right incentive. Dumbledore was at the top of the list of perpetrators.

Then the boy had secluded himself in Grimmauld Place to study for the upcoming year.

**(space)**

Having thrown himself into his studies, Crane was only peripherally aware of what was happening in Britain via Gary, who was keeping him updated, and the Daily Prophet.

James Potter was found to have had no idea about the Love Potions and, when being tested himself, was found to also be under Love Potions and Will Inhibitors. With the potions ceased and having gotten past the withdrawals, James still loved Lily, but was willing to separate to sort things out. He also, Crane was told, withdrew from the Order and moved to France where he was now studying for his Masters in Transfiguration. He had sent Crane a letter stating that he didn't expect to be forgiven, but had reinstated him into the Potter Family Will anyway. Last heard, James was teaching French Aurors how to become animagi.

Lily was spending a lot of time with her father, Ashura, but it was awkward. Lily had a lot more in common with her mother than her father. The only reason Ashura had agreed to sleep with Sirona was because she had Foreseen a child with him. Gary commented that she was particularly uncomfortable when she figured out that Yasha, the tanned sidhe warrior that was always hanging around Ashura, was, in fact, his 'special friend'. Lily was learning how to work politics and manoeuvring in the Court while simultaneously going for Masteries in Charms and Potions.

Sirona was still missing, but a Blood Spell showed she was still alive, even if no one could find her.

Gary had paid a visit on his own to Count D, who had agreed that non-humans like sidhe were exempted from the Contract and somehow extracted a promise from Gary into regularly getting several magical animals for his shop in return for rare and unheard of potion ingredients.

Ashura had raised an eyebrow on being introduced to Medusa, but had accepted it quickly. Lily struggled for a bit before accepting the inevitability.

In regards to the bond between Crane and Gary, distance made it easier for the two to sort out their identities and thoughts from each other, and Gary learnt Occlumancy from one of Ashura's friends. The younger twin had yet to manage to wrangle an explanation from Crane regarding Kuronue, but never said anything to anyone else about it.

Luna, Blaise, Calder, Morvina and Klocia got into Three Towers, while Shiro was let in as an Apprentice to the Weapons and Tactics teachers since it had been one of the students who had summoned him, stranding the Shinigami captain in their world. Once caught up, he joined Luna in her second year and the two were almost attached at the hip. With their personalities, no one could figure out how their relationship worked, especially since Toushiro was perpetually twelve to thirteen in appearance.

Partway through the first school year, Luna went into a coma and came out of the Infirmary about a foot taller, her skin a few dozen shades darker, her hair paler and softer and her nails about three inches long. Oh, and black-tipped white bunny ears. Apparently her maternal grandmother had been a Viera who had a child and left her with the child's father when Luna's mother showed no Viera characteristics. It opened all sorts of doors for her.

Blaise and Morvin started courting towards the end of their second year at Three Towers, surprising no one.

Calder remained Crane's Second and became his best friend. Their conversations were usually hushed and lasted for hours in relaxed companionship.

Klocia still affiliated herself with Crane's group, but was also the school's femme fatale, well known for the fact that her boyfriends never lasted long before disappearing. She got along well with Blaise's mother, who had taken her on as a protegee.

Kurai swung in and out of Crane's life like a pendulum, reporting on Kurama and catching up. Her son, Kunai, also re-established familial relations and hit it off well with Calder, whom he became something of a mentor to for a time.

By the time the Clan scouts had managed to track down 'Minamino Suichi', he had managed to get himself drafted into the Reikai Tentai. Kuronue was not nearly as amused as Crane.

With each weekly report of 'his Youko' doing 'dog's work' for Reikai, Kuronue became pissier and pissier.

There was a supernaturally loud mental scream of rage when an early report arrived saying the fox was on his way to the Dark Tournament. Crane, after he'd woken up in the infirmary four hours later, was informed, by an amused Kurai, that his brother was being treated for a sudden-onset concussion.

It wasn't often that the komori youkai used their extreme vocal range, but when they did, it was devastating on the 'ears'.

So Crane, Kurai, Calder, Luna and several guards were in the VIP box of the Dark Tournament.

**(space)**

As the battle between Youko's human teammate and a child-like demon named Rinku, Crane and Kurai shifted forward to get a better look at who had just stepped forward.

When Youko's human form stepped onto the platform for his first match, Crane and Kuronue reached out and stroked their human-tainted youki against Youko Kurama's own human-tainted youki.

The red-haired form on the platform froze, head tilting towards the VIP box.

_'Just a little longer,' _Crane/Kuronue murmured through the fox's mind, utilising a telepathic ability Crane had picked up at the Institute. '_I'm here and I'm watching. Don't die now, ya hear? Ihave a new story to tell you.'_

Youko tilted his head in slight acquiescence towards the box before moving on to meet his opponent, a thuggish creature called Roto.

After listening to Roto's threats, Crane tilted his head towards Kurai, who was already on a mobile. She met his eyes and shook her head, mouthing the world 'taken care of'.

Reaching out again to Youko, Crane moved gently so as not to startle the fox. '_The demons are dead. They were taken care of before they even breached the boundaries of the block you live on.'_

The red-head did a remarkable job of not reacting, but Crane could feel the sudden jolt of surprise and alarm go through the fox.

Kuronue was a little hurt but Crane had expected it, hurrying to ease the worry. '_We've known where you are for months now. We just have been considering our choices because you are currently working for the Binky-Sucker.'_

While Youko was still unsettled, he turned the majority of his attention back to the match, ending the slit-second conversation.

**(space)**

And so Team Urameshi ended up winning the round and Kurama quietly split from the back of the group, seeking his former partner, half-convinced that he would end up having to kill his lover to protect his mother.

…Even if he wasn't sure he could kill the man he still loved.

* * *

Review!


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